Fashion designer Yoon is the first artist to collaborate with Moët & Chandon on a global limited edition. Image credit: Moët & Chandon
LVMH-owned Champagne brand Moët & Chandon is collaborating with fashion designer Yoon Ahn for its first artistic redesign of Moët Impérial.
The Japan-based designer, who goes by her first name, has put a minimalist spin on the iconic Moët Impérial and Nectar Impérial Rosé Champagne bottles. While the house has launched collaborations and limited-edition bottles in the past, this the global effort and the first to touch on Impérial.
“As a category, Champagne sales dropped 18 percent in 2020 due to COVID-19,” said Chris Ramey, founder of Affluent Insights, Palm Beach, FL. “The collaboration demonstrates Moët’s management understood the need to revisit everything they do and to reach out to new clients.
“Yoon’s youthful approach to design instills sophistication and passion,” he said.
Moët & Chandon x Ambush
Yoon is the cofounder creative director of Japanese fashion brand Ambush. The Korean American designer is also the director of jewelry at Dior Homme, another LVMH-owned brand.
The collaboration adds a touch of Ambush’s contemporary, idiosyncratic minimalism to Moët & Chandon’s signature Champagne, which debuted in 1869. The brands share a pioneering spirit and commitment to craftsmanship.
Yoon collaborated with Moët & Chandon for an edgy bottle redesign
Moët & Chandon revealed the collaboration on social media, with an accompanying video campaign. Yoon appears in the hero film, explaining more about the project in a voiceover.
“When Moët & Chandon approached me, I was thrilled to be given carte blanche for this collaboration,” Yoon says in the video. “Modernity, simplicity and stark contrast guided my vision to bring up the essence of this iconic Champagne.”
Yoon’s limited-edition bottles swap out the gold and pink foil of the Impérial and Nectar Impérial Rosé Champagnes with black. The Impérial bottle has a red embossed seal, while the Nectar Impérial Rosé’s seal is black.
The bottles’ gilded labels were also replaced with bright white embossed labels for a clean look reminiscent of a blank page or slate.
“I imagine the blank slate like a window into the future, open those daring to make something new,” Yoon says in her voiceover.
Yoon is creative director at Ambush, a cult fashion label. Image credit: Moët & Chandon
Moët & Chandon also shared a longer interview with Yoon on its YouTube channel. She discusses what she learned about Champagne and the collaboration’s charitable component.
A portion of the profits from the Moët & Chandon x Ambush collaboration will benefit the World Land Trust. The contribution will directly go to the preservation of the Canandé Reserve in the Ecuadorian Chocó Forest.
The redesigned bottles will become available globally later this year.
Champagne collaborations
This is the most extensive collaboration from Moët & Chandon, but the Champagne house is not new to creative partnerships.
In 2018, Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton, worked with Moët & Chandon on his first bottle design.
Each bottle featured Mr. Abloh’s signature “Do Not Drop” on the side. His Nectar Imperial Rosé was a limited-edition release, complete with a unique all-white label (see story).
In a similar initiative, the Champagne brand offered special bottles to celebrate a Grand Slam champion and support a children's charity.
To honor tennis player Roger Federer, Moët & Chandon designed exclusive bottles wrapped in a leather grip. The release was limited to 20 bottles, with all of the profits donated to the Roger Federer Foundation (see story).
“Collaborations are a pillar of luxury,” Mr. Ramey said. “They bring new clients to both brands.”