City Pulse

Have Yourself A Bubbly Little Holiday

By Jennifer Wright

Truman Capote once wrote that “life is very dark, and very bleak, that is why we should all drink champagne and stay at the Ritz.” No sooner did he write that than the question was posed ‘how shall I transport my champagne to the Ritz?’ It seems vulgar to tote magnums of Dom Pérignon about in an ordinary suitcase, after all.

Fortunately, that question has finally been answered by the ever innovative Karl Lagerfeld who has designed a case, which contains not one, but six bottles of Dom Pérignon along with 3 champagne flutes. The bottles within are all rare vintages and are comprised of one bottle of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1966, two bottles of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1986 and three bottles of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1996. The beautiful, pale rose pink case itself, lined with lambskin and covered in perch skin, should last long after the last dregs of bubbly have been drained.

The release of the case, which is to be sold in time for Christmas at Harrods’s Room of Luxury, coincides with Lagerfeld’s photo campaign for Dom Pérignon. Lagerfeld has lent his services to Dom Pérignon numerous times in the past, but his new campaign seems particularly striking and decadent, and the images within it are certainly more art than advertising. The photographs don’t take place at the Ritz, though set largely in a classic French Chateau they’re every bit as glamorous and feature the lovely Claudia Schiffer who Lagerfeld declares is “all women in one.”

Schiffer herself remarks that the campaign is about “all the fantasies that a man could have.” The pictures in the campaign, which can be seen here are set in a variety of time periods, from the 18th century to the 21st. The case, however, should prove timeless. Whether it is timeless enough to justify the Â£70,000 price tag may of course depend upon how bleak you feel life would be without it.

Originally published November 2007

Holiday Countdown – PANIC MODE