Luckily our mothers forgave us that we couldn’t stay for dinner on Mother’s Day. But, we had a good reason: an evening with the French designer Alexis Mabille to celebrate the launch of the new limited edition Cointreau bottle. Designed by the master himself.
The limited edition bottle -containing 1L of Cointreau, instead of 0,70L- is embellished with silver bows. Mabille took inspiration from the instruments the mixologists use for making cocktails, which is a lot of silverware. The bow-tie is a signature item in his collections. As he started his own house he designed a unisex collection, in which the bow connected the masculine and feminine.
His collaboration with Cointreau didn’t come as a coincidence. Being good friends with Dita von Teese -the muse of the licqueur brand- he got introduced to the right people. His first project for Cointreau was to design the pop-up bar ‘Cointreau Privé’ in Paris. This became such a huge success -the place was packed each night for the 2 months it existed- that the next assignment to design the limited edition bottle, came as a natural continuation.
Ofcourse, sitting next to him at dinner gave us the opportunity to get to know more about Alexis Mabille. Some insights:
-After studying at La Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture he did his internships at Ungaro and Nina Ricci.
-He worked closely with John Galliano at Dior for 9 years. During that time he was given the distinctive tasks to design the accessories, lingerie and men’s jewellery, but also to supervise the development of cosmetics. This link to the cosmetics industry led him to launch ‘Beau Bow’, a limited edition scent with Six Scents, a fragrance company in New York. Who knows, an Alxis Mabille fragrance line might just be part of the bigger plan.
-His team consists only of 10 people. One of them is his sister in law, who is Dutch (originally from Noordwijk) and used to be a model.
-If Alexis had not become a designer, other professions of choice would have been opera singer (that might explain why a lot of his friends are dancers at l’Opéra de Paris, he hangs out there frequently), or an interior designer. He loves to wander around fleamarkets to discover hidden treasures.
-This was his first visit in Amsterdam! And as he claimed to love tulips, we hereby offer him to take him to the Keukenhof the next time he visits!
