Olivier Rousteing and Johnnie Walker have teamed up for the first Johnnie Walker Vault release, “Couture Expression.”
”When I spoke with the team of Johnnie Walker, I was so excited because we were creating something from scratch and unique,” said Rousteing of the collaboration, which includes four limited-edition whisky blends bottled in Baccarat decanters. The four Couture Expression blends are bottled in editions of 25, retailing for $20,000 each. “Creating a whisky is really an art — like creating a [fashion] collection is an art, as well,” he adds.
The fashion designer is the first “cultural partner” for the luxury-focused Johnnie Walker Vault platform, which taps into the brand’s archive of rare whiskies in Edinburgh. Rousteing described the project as a full-circle moment, rooted in the childhood memory of spending time at his grandparents’ house. The collaboration is similarly guided by memory, reflecting Rousteing’s personal connection to the four seasons and tapping into the heritage of the whisky brand established in 1820.
Olivier Rousteing with Dr. Emma Walker
Courtesy
The designer worked in tandem with Johnnie Walker master blender Dr. Emma Walker. During their initial meeting, both admitted having limited knowledge of, but strong admiration for, the other’s area of expertise. Using music as a common creative language, Walker began the creation process by asking Rousteing to name songs that reflected what he hoped to evoke with each seasonal blend. Walker then curated rare whiskies from the Vault to create flavor profiles that would encapsulate Rousteing’s personal associations.
“It’s like working in fashion and creating a beautiful jacket,” added the Balmain creative director. “Just a different kind of ingredients.”
While Walker oversaw the beverage component, Rousteing turned his attention to the visual element of the bottle, a square design created by the brand’s founder Alexander Walker in the late 1800s to accommodate being shipped via boats. Rousteing “draped” each Baccarat-produced bottle with four different metallic shades, and added a winged metal stopper.
“Mr. Johnnie Walker was all about ‘keep walking,’” said Rousteing. “Keep walking means believe in yourself, believe in your dream, and you can make it happen,” he added. “I was like, maybe we should think of ‘keep walking until you fly.’ Because when I walk, I basically always look at the sky, and sky’s the limit.” The “winged” stopper is also connected to the fireplace explosion that resulted in severe burning for Rousteing several years ago. “Sometimes I feel like a phoenix rising from my own ashes,” he added. “So it was a lot of symbols, a lot of emotions creating the bottle.”
The Couture Expression collaboration officially launches on May 26, with pre-launch availability from May 5 at Harrods.
Rousteing will host a VIP dinner celebrating the collaboration in New York on May 3, two days before the Met Gala. The team is working with Bureau Betak and chef Yann Nury for the occasion, which will be held at the McKittrick Hotel, the former home of now-shuttered show “Sleep No More.”
“Having the Johnnie Walker launch on Saturday, having the incredible Met Gala with my guests — it’s going to be a beautiful weekend that I will remember forever,” said Rousteing. “And hopefully in the next 50 years when people see my bottle that we created with the Vault, people will remember as well this moment in New York,” he adds. “This is the beauty of spirit, and this is the strength of Johnnie Walker: staying on time, staying in time, and staying forever.”
Johnnie Walker Vault x Olivier Rousteing
Courtesy
