Samuel Ross Designs China-inspired Absolut Vodka Bottle
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LONDON — Absolut Vodka has teamed with British fashion designer and founder of A-Cold-Wall Samuel Ross via his industrial design practice SR_A on a limited run of China-inspired bottles and gift sets for the local market.
A weeklong pop-up showcasing the collaboration will open Thursday in the New World Development-owned shopping mall K11 Shanghai. Ross will travel to China for the launch.
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The limited-edition design is based on the original, transparent Absolut Vodka bottle and the brand’s blue lettering. It comes with a red dot grid “representing individuals and blurs, symbolizing the gathering of people,” and reflecting “the close integration and interaction of people and cities” of China, according to the brand.
The gift set retails for 1,299 renminbi, or $181.12, and includes an ice bucket and a cooler in red, a nod to China’s signature color. Both items are made entirely of stainless steel from customized molds and have been spray-painted with environmentally friendly paints. The cooler replicates the shape of the bottle, with a double-layered structure for longer cooling.
The brands said the collaboration enables them to “demonstrate their shared pursuit of cultural integration and co-creation, providing the Chinese trendsetting youth with a consumer experience that blends fashion, industrial aesthetics and art,” and allows Absolut to “better integrate into the lives of China’s young generation.”
The bottles will be available exclusively in the Swedish vodka brand’s Tmall store with the functional design objects offered solely through Absolut Lab, the company’s WeChat mini-program, beginning Friday.
A-Cold-Wall was one of the first international fashion brands to double down on the Chinese market as the pandemic came to an end. It unveiled its first stand-alone store in Beijing’s affluent shopping development Taikoo Li Sanlitun last summer.
The store was the result of a partnership with brand-management specialist Power Rich and with Tomorrow, which acquired a minority stake in A-Cold-Wall in 2018.
According to Ross, China represents a significant percentage of the brand’s annual revenues, which tripled between 2019 to 2022. Ross said his brand is “really keen to continue to grow that market.”
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