Wine as Inspiration in Fashion

When closely observing the wine evolution it is fairly obvious how its influence has spread far away from its intended place (our cellar). There is a strong trend of label designs and various designers have tested their skills in this area. Also, it has become inspiration for many iconic fashion innovations.

Fashion and Wine obviously have a natural fit, as in in 2009 fashion designer Donna Karen of DKNY designed Chandon’s bottle to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Karim Rashid has had two major collaborations with Veuve Clicquot Champagne.  One was a celebration of Veuve Clicquot’s Pink Champagne. Karim Rashid’s signature pink lines and feminine appeal, inspired the design of the Veuve Clicquot Globalight limited edition champagne cooler. Here, he intended to “encapsulate the bottle with warmth” and surround it with light
. The creation serves 3 functions: a way to showcase and carry the champagne, cool champagne, and light the bottle. Veuve Cliquot Champagne has also fashion accessories designed by Andrée Putman, Pablo Reinoso and Pucci while Yoko Ono designed a wine label for the Nittardi Winery in Tuscany.

Bruno Borie, owner of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou in Bordeaux has hired Jade Jagger to design the label of his wine selection, Croix de Beaucaillou. This gave a stronger personality to the wine linking it to the edgier, rock style. The new label will be on all bottles from the 2010 vintage onwards, with a limited edition for the 2009 vintage.

One of the reasons Coco Chanel created the Chanel 2.55 bag was so ladies could carry their purse over their shoulders, leaving their hands free to drink champagne. The bag was revolutionary in its time due to the addition of a chain strap. Coco declared that she only drank champagne on 2 occasions . . . when she was in love and when she wasn’t. This wasn’t Coco’s only link with wine – her famous Chanel symbol was not designed by her. The symbol was given to her by the owner of the Château de Cremat (a château on the outskirts of Nice in the south of France).

When looking back into the history and first days of the Bordeaux as a color, we come to see that it has been used by the British
under the name Claret since the 14thcentury (see Britain’s Love Affair With Claret). The wines from Bordeaux were much paler at this time (when compared to the wine from Bordeaux today) and were therefore known as clairet, which in French means “clear”. The first recorded use of Burgundy as a color name was in 1881 and Champagne as a color name in 1915. The music hall song “Champagne Charlie” has definitely given certain amount of popularity to Champagne and greatly influenced the fashion industry, as the Roaring Twenties were defined by Champagne flapper dresses.
As for me, I’ve bought a gorgeous bordeaux colored bag (Vivene Westwood on sale, so happy!) and our wine director should carry around a Veuve Clicquot computer bag. We show our love for wine and fashion wherever we are!