Beau Joie Champagne Kicks Off Collaboration With Fashion Heavy-Hitters Marchesa

Champagne has long been the preferred sip of the well-heeled. The bubbles are poured generously at (pre-Covid) fashion weeks. Brigitte Bardot used bottles to christen her boat in the 1970s, and Napoleon Bonaparte would bombastically saber bottles to celebrate his victories in the 1800s.

Beau Joie Champagne is further weaving this love affair closer with a new collaboration with fashion house Marchesa. The limited-edition partnership—it will span a range of new products—kicked off with the release of 1,000 ‘couture bottles’ into the market. These bottles had SRP of US $599 per bottle. 

The partnership may seem obvious—high-fashion and Champagne are both traditional markers of status, and worlds that constantly encircle each other.

But these two brands are both part of a wave of new guard brands in their respective categories. 

Beau Joie is a new-school, Champagne brand. Made in Epernay, France, the zero-dosage Champagne is clean, crisp and delicate, with a natural sweetness and elegant effervescence. The bottle is encased in a handcrafted, upcycled copper lacing inspired by a suit of armor. (Funnily enough, the brand has been thriving during the pandemic—copper is thought to neutralize viruses.)

Marchesa is a highly regarded fashion brand headed by Georgina Chapman; known for dreamy, otherworldly designs translated into both ready-to-wear and couture pieces.

The collaboration will breed a range of new products, the highlight of which is a special cuvée with a bottle designed by Chapman. Instead of the brand’s signature copper casing, the bottle is wrapped in a shimmering constellation of 10,000 hand-beaded stones, pearls, and beads, and finished with iridescent embroidery.

“Collaborating with a couture fashion brand is very different than most partnerships,” says Brandis Deitelbaum, the co-founder and chief marketing officer at Beau Joie Champagne. “The design house is overflowing with imagination which is so much fun and refreshing. The opportunities are endless for what can be created. Fashion people are artists by nature who bring their ideas to life through their clothing.”

However, “it’s difficult to transfer their vision to a glass bottle of champagne,” says Deitelbaum. “Things you have to consider are costs, how to manufacture and assemble, and how to communicate the reason for being, versus just having another pretty bottle.”

Beau Joie is working to cross-market the product globally through luxury retailers and a slow rollout to high-end resorts, hotels, and retail. 

“This blend is fruitful, perfectly balanced, and not too dry,” she describes. “We wanted it to have the ability to be served as a Champagne for a toast at a wedding or a shower, or as a special bottle celebrating an anniversary or birthday or another happy occasion. The champagne has no sugar added which is one of our signature points of difference over other champagnes.”

Looking to the history of the category, partnering with creative industries has proved to be fruitful for Champagne brands.

Back in 2016, under the advice of creative strategy firm Mission, Veuve Clicquot’s Widow Series positioned the brand at various art, theater and dance events (including one curated by FKA twigs). It paid off, and the brand saw a 574% increase in user-generated Instagram content and a 455% increase for overall campaign reach. 

In 2013, Dom Perignon tapped Jeff Koons for a hot pink sculpture, holding a bottle of 2003 Dom Perignon Rosé. It later sold for €15,000. Over the brand’s history, Dom has tapped everyone from filmmaker David Lynch to Karl Lagerfeld for projects. 

In more recent years, fashion designer and general multi-hyphenate Virgil Abloh collaborated with Moët & Chandon for a limited-edition bottle of rose. In 2019, Prabal Gurung crafted a set of Champagne flutes for Perrier-Jouët.

Why is Champagne so successful at category bending? It’s a celebratory beverage, and unlike other wine categories, the bubbles are particularly positioned to thrive in community settings, like fashion shows, art events and beyond. People love celebrating, whether it’s a grand event or just the end of another day, and Champagne is the ideal drink for that. 

It’s a beverage favored by wine connoisseurs, but also holds an aspirational status in the luxury goods world. Even those unfamiliar with the painstaking production process and storied history will gravitate to bottles of Dom, Veuve, Moët and the like when it comes time to raise a glass.

But these creative collaborations like these that are almost essential to Champagne’s future. As the director of the UK’s Champagne Information Bureau Francoise Peretti told The Drinks Business, Champagne brands need to attract a younger generation to survive. “Unlike the Baby Boomers, they are open-minded consumers, willing to look beyond the ‘just for celebrations’ mantra. This is their most important attribute: a desire to embrace the idea that Champagne can be a drink for the weekend, not simply New Year.” 

So what has Beau Joie has the brand learned through the collaboration? 

“We have learned that fashion and luxury is a mindset. You have to spend a great deal of time thinking about why you are doing the collaboration, and what does it bring to the brand and company,” describes Deitelbaum. “We wanted to build on our specialness, while also attracting new consumers to discover us and have a reason for more direct dialog on social media. We closed the circle with a unique offering on our direct-to-consumer portal. I’m proud to say all of our goals were achieved.”