Virgil Abloh is an American fashion designer who lately holds several reasons to pop Champagne thanks to the many ideas he’s brought to life. Landing the artistic director position of Louis Vuitton in March of 2018, enabled him to become the first African-American to conceptualize a complete line for the French fashion house. He is the 37-year-old behind the cult brand Off-White and the designer behind Louis Vuitton’s menswear. He even debuted a profound collaboration with LVMH luggage brand Rimowa to reveal the transparent polycarbonate suitcase, back in June.
Now, Abloh is revealing his latest partnership to bring a limited-edition bottle for the 275-year-old maison, Moët & Chandon. (The “M” in LVMH, according to Forbes.)
“They approached me saying they had an opportunity to work on a special edition of their Champagne and I thought it interesting—so I agreed,” Abloh says. “For me, Moët is the best in class, you know. It’s an authentic product with an authentic history, you know, all the elements—that usually intrigues me to think of ideas.”
The two editions in the collaboration include Moët Nectar Impérial Rosé, a 750ml “ready-to-wear” bottle, which will be available nationally, and an exclusive three-liter Jeroboam strictly for Abloh’s family and friends. Both limited-edition bottles will be released on October 15. While the three-liter jeroboam does not hold a price tag, the 750ml will be priced at $60 at Clos19 and select retailers.
Abloh is known for emblazoning a significant amount of his designs with words and phrases typically in quotation marks, and that’s exactly what he did with his limited-edition bottles. The words “Do Not Drop” are displayed across the bottle and “For Display Only” is presented across the box.
“While I’m a designer in this moment, it is sort of having my footprint—or thumbprint, rather—on a sort of iconic thing to lifestyle,” Abloh says. “And you know that happens in fashion, it happens within architecture, it happens within music. So at the best of its time I’d like to make a version or articulate an idea through it. And to me that was working with Moët on a version of their product that recalls what the product means.”
He continues saying, “And that’s where I found the idea to do my version,” he continues, “which is, you know, Champagne—even the word itself sort of represents celebrations and this moment of ‘making it.’ And it’s sort of an icon for that. That’s what I found interesting.”
Abloh certainly knows how to attach himself with his work and become fully dedicated with every project he encounters. “My instinct was to make an emotional connection within the limitations of the project,” he says regarding his approach to collaborating with Moët & Chandon. “And as a rule of thumb I’m always into, like: What’s the maximum impact you can have with the minimum amount of interaction? And that’s where the philosophy of the text comes from. So this idea of ‘Do Not Drop’ is figurative and literal.”
“Champagne, to my mind, is to celebrate an achievement,” he says. “And to have that embedded in its content in an emotional way. So that’s what came. You know, that’s where the notion of ‘Don’t Drop,’ —like, physically ‘don’t drop and break the bottle’—or ‘don’t break that moment’ came into play.”
