Christian Louboutin and Piper-Heidsieck Team Up
Wine Spectator – October 8, 2009
Market watchers, take heart: The continuing world economic crisis hasn’t dampened some Champagne houses’ enthusiasm for over-the-top displays of decadence.
Case in point: “Le Rituel,” Piper-Heidsieck’s collaboration with famed haute couture shoe designer Christian Louboutin, who has created a crystal stiletto heel-shaped “Champagne flute” that Piper-Heidsieck is selling, for about $500, in a fancy shoebox along with a special Louboutin-edition bottle of Champagne Piper Heidsieck Cuvée Brut.
The designer was inspired by the female cabaret dancers of Belle Epoque Paris, who would serve sips of Champagne to gentleman admirers from the inside of their dancing shoes, a ritual that was itself inspired by the ballerinas of the Bolshoi Ballet in the 1880s.
You may recall that Piper-Heidsieck was also behind the upside-down Champagne bottle, ice bucket and flutes designed by Dutch fashion duo Viktor & Rolf, and before that, a bottle dressed in a red leather corset by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Finally, a sophisticated French answer to Germany’s Oktoberfest “Das Boot” tradition: Vive La Shoe Flute!
