FRANCE/INTERNATIONAL. Rémy Cointreau turned the Champagne world upside down with its latest daring launch at TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes last week.
The French drinks company’s Champagne house Piper Heidsieck has tied up with hot Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf to create Viktor & Rolf Rosé Sauvage.
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(Left) ‘Welcome to the world of apparitions’ say Viktor & Rolf as they turn the traditional Champagne bottle on its head | |
“I invite you to an upside down experience,” Rémy Cointreau Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marie Laborde told guests at the Cannes launch reception. “It is the cross-roads between the traditional style and the greatest extravagance.”
He said the launch underlined the company’s commitment to the travel retail channel – “regardless of supply issues”.
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The Viktor & Rolf fashion house was founded in 1993 by designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren. Commenting on the Champagne project they said: “When we were contacted by Piper-Heidsieck, the first question we asked ourselves was: “˜How can we make this bottle, which we think of as iconic, look a little bit like us?”
The designer duo’s answer was to turn the Champagne bottle upside down to create an illusion, whereby the back becomes the front and the bottom of the bottle becomes the top. The related Champagne flutes and ice buckets share a similar twist.
Describing the approach, Rémy Cointreau said: “The bottle turns into a phial. A magic casket. An illusion. The back becomes the front. The bottom of the bottle becomes the top. The inverted flute becomes a coupe. The gaze is overturned, the head bows, a waking dream is beginning.”
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(Left) Celebrating the new launch in Cannes are Rémy Cointreau Champagne Marketing Director Vincent Duhem (left), Piper-Heidsieck President Anne-Charlotte Amory, Rémy Cointreau Global Travel Retail Director – Worldwide Peter Sant and Rémy Cointreau Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marie Laborde; (Right) It’s a case of ‘Bottoms up’ for Maxxium Global Travel Retail Regional Director (East Europe, North Europe) Erik Thomsen and Gebr Heinemann Co-Owner Claus Heinemann as they toast the new launch | |
Viktor & Rolf added: “There’s always a danger in taking on this sort of project: the risk of creating a gimmick. The only way to avoid this pitfall is to be very thorough in the execution.”
Rémy Cointreau said: “It is a limited edition, not in its life span but in its distribution. [It will have] A selective distribution, to the image of Viktor & Rolf’s – available in a limited number of wine stores or high end department stores, as well as in a few of the hot spots of consumption.”
ABOUT VIKTOR & ROLF
Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren were both born in Holland in 1969 and studied together at the prestigious Academy of Arts at Arnheim. The label Viktor & Rolf was created in 1993, and after a series of critically acclaimed Haute Couture collections, they launched their Ready-to-Wear in 2000.
Their creative work was crowned by a retrospective at the Musée de la Mode in Paris, in October 2003.
In 2004 the neo-surrealist fashion house announced a partnership with L’Oréal Produits de Luxe, unveiling their first fragrance, Flowerbomb, months later.
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