Chinese designer Shuting Qiu just became Hennessy‘s first-ever woman fashion design collaborator, teaming up with the storied brand for its Lunar New Year limited-edition collection. Recreating its iconic V.S.O.P., X.O and Paradis cognac carafes, the collaboration sees Qiu blend traditional Chinese craftsmanship with contemporary design, leaning into the tasting notes of Hennessy’s signature offering.
Celebrating the concept of renewal and transformation, Qiu’s designs utilize abstract snake motifs and colorful patterns, emulating Chinese brocade and embroidery. Each bottle is as unique as its blend, with the V.S.O.P. exuding a warm ruby and amber hue, crafted with notes of apricot, vanilla and mellow oak. Next, the X.O promises a journey through the senses, featuring notes of candied fruit, spicy cognac, eaux-de-vie and chocolate. Finally, Paradis arrives with a rich amber color, exuding floral notes with a hint of jasmine, followed by delicate cinnamon touches and notes of exotic fruits.
Mirroring these unique blends, Qiu created Lunar New Year-inspired designs for the collaboration, delving deep into the brand’s rich archives. As the collection launches, we caught up with the designer to find out more about her creative process, learnings and newfound relationship with Hennessy.
Read on for the full interview.
Tell us a bit about how the inspiration behind the collaboration.
It’s mainly inspired by traditional Chinese brocade. I’m from Hangzhou, which is the capital city of Zhejiang in China, so I always get inspiration from there. I also collected a lot of the traditional and old fabrics which partly inspired the collaboration as well.
That sounds great. What’s also so special about this collaboration is that it’s the first time Hennessy has teamed up with a female designer. How does it feel to be a part of that?
I’m very proud and very excited to be the first female artist to be selected. I feel really honored to be able to really express myself and say what I want to say about the Chinese New Year.
Definitely. You mentioned collecting old, traditional fabrics in preparation for the collaboration — what else can you tell us about the design process?
At the very beginning, I took a trip to Cognac to really experience the brand’s history and heritage. I discovered a lot about the craftsmanship behind the Hennessy brand and I did a lot of research about the archive pieces from the past, looking at the photos, the patterns and the stories. I needed a lot of information to fully immerse myself in the brand because as a fashion designer, it’s quite a different industry for me. I then went back to China to begin the design process and started thinking about what I wanted to transform for the collaboration. For me, the snake feels like more of a female equivalent to the dragon, so that was the starting point.
It was also about reimagination, snakes shed their skins every year which got me thinking about new directions, changing and moving forward in the new year. I started with painting and drawing — similar to my fashion design process — and then combined the hand-painted graphics with computer ones. For this project, we had different bottles so we had the VSOP, XO and Paradis. For each bottle, it was about creating a different combination of the patterns.
With VSOP, for me it’s the most colorful and young, so I mixed more fashion elements for a higher energy design. For the XO, it’s designed with more gold and red so it feels slightly different, more mature and a bit more elegant. For Paradis, it’s mainly red in color, designed with leather and combined with a snake sculpture on the bottle. It’s more quiet luxury and more related to fashion.
You touched on it a bit already, but as a fashion designer, translating your creative process from clothing to product must have been a bit of a challenge. What were some of the things that you found difficult about that process?
It is quite different because, with fashion design, you can make it about more than just the patterns. There are techniques like draping and different fabrics. Still, we were able to bring a lot of fashion elements to the project, there are so many ideas and so many elements you want to involve but we had to cut back. With fashion design, you create something like 40 looks a season so it’s a lot bigger, but in this situation, you can only select a few patterns and elements to communicate your message, which is a challenge.
On the flip side, do you think that there are some learnings that you’ve taken from this process that might now influence the way that you create ready-to-wear?
Yeah, for instance, actually, in my collection, I hardly use red and gold or that much color. I think I started to, you know, use it because I normally have a lot of colors, but sometimes now I’m maybe now I can also simplify the colors, and you can find the different rare combinations. So it’s given me a new way of thinking about my designs also.
We can imagine! Of course, this is the first time you’ve worked with Hennessy but how do you see the partnership evolving in the future?
It’s been a really meaningful collaboration for me. Of course, Hennessy is a very huge global brand and I think it’s a very good opportunity for me to bring my creativity and ideas to the table and spread this message to over the world. I think it’s been a very good platform for me.
