A major fashion house like Louis Vuitton entrusting its customers to decide its next creative director might seem like a long way off. However LVMH is trialling the mechanism elsewhere in its portfolio.
While Pharrell Williams appointment as creative director for Louis Vuitton Men’s was settled in-house, in the traditional manner, it’s a different story when it comes to the Group’s Hennessy cognac.
Following Hennessy’s buzzy partnership with Dior Homme and Fendi womenswear artistic director Kim Jones, H3NSY, Hennessy’s Web3 platform has announced that its latest project for its membership community, Café 11, will engage with that community to decide on the design direction for its new limited edition bottle.
Co-creation, a fundamental part of Web3’s decentralized ethos, is increasingly gaining ground with retailers moving into the Web3 space. Most recently, new DTC beauty brand KIKI World has launched with a similar proposition allowing its community to vote on the products it brings to market. Going Forward, they will be able to select and own beauty product attributes, paving the way for future revenue sharing with customers.
H3NSY Café Eleven community artwork.
From today through May 29, all Café 11 token holders will have the opportunity to choose which of three emerging Web3 native artists will get the job. Once selected, the creative will work with the Café 11 community to gather ideas and inspiration to collectively develop the artwork for the bottle.
Once validated, Hennessy’s packaging design agency will take the art and refine the files before revealing the bottle rendering, box design and associated nonfungible tokens.
BlockBar, a direct to consumer NFT marketplace for luxury wine, will create a token-gated page for Café 11 holders to mint their proof of ownership NFT and once the bottle has completed production, holders will be able to redeem their physical bottle using said token.
This release is limited in quantity and will be available exclusively to Café 11 token holders. The full process is expected to be completed by summer 2024, and the bottles will be stored at BlockBar’s facilities in Singapore for redemption or long-term storage.
The artists being put to the vote are Florian Zumbrunn, Edouard and Johnsville. Zumbrunn, whose approach blurs the lines between digital and physical realms, is a rising talent in the generative art scene. His work has been showcased in Tokyo, Milan, and Paris, as well as on Web3 platforms like ArtBlocks and FxHash. Edouard is a visual artist and NFT collector and curator who draws inspiration from diverse art forms such as French Touch music and has exhibited at Paris’ NFT Factory. The work of native New Yorker Johnsville reflects the energy of comic books, street art, surrealism, and impressionism.
Earlier this year Kim Jones designed a 200-piece limited edition bottle for the brand alongside a decanter and a pair of sneakers. Said bottle was created via 3D printing and finished by hand.
The Hennessy X.O limited edition bottle by Kim Jones.