Celebrating Lunar New Year with Hennessy X Shuting Qiu.
“Hennessy has given me a chance to show my creativity and connection to Chinese culture and bring it to the global stage” Shuting Qiu on her collaboration with Hennessy in honour of the Lunar New Year.
Shuting Qiu and Hennessy have married the ‘Perfect’ collaboration in honour of the Lunar New Year. In a fusion of fashion and heritage, designer Shuting Qiu and Hennessy have collaborated to celebrate Chinese New Year, by reimagining the iconic X.O, V.S.O.P and Paradis bottles.
Shuting, known for her elaborate embroideries, and jacquard fabrics and Hennessy known for its rich heritage and legacy have blended perfectly to create a capsule collection titled ‘Reimagination’ honouring the Year of the Snake, marking renewal and positive transformation.
Speaking to Perfect, Qiu talks us through the process of the collaboration, and also the importance of Chinese New Year.
Perfect: “We’re obsessed with your limited bottle collection with Hennessy - tell us more about how that came to be?”
Shuting: "Hennessy approached me to ask me if I was keen to collaborate with them. I thought it was a very rare opportunity, as a fashion designer collaborating with a Cognac. It was very interesting. And it’s also about Chinese New Year – the Year of the Snake, so I had quite a lot of inspiration to play with.”
Perfect: "What was your inspiration when designing this collaboration?”
Shuting: “The creative idea was around ‘Reimagination’, so I got inspiration from Hennessy and its heritage and combined that with my own aesthetic. I also got a lot of inspiration from Chinese culture and Chinese textiles to create this collection.”
Perfect: “This collection is all about ‘reimagination’. What does that mean to you?”
Shuting: “As it's the ‘year of the snake’ for us in China, the snake means you have to renew. It's a new start, so reimagination for me is a new start, it's a new year”.
Perfect: “How did you incorporate your heritage and culture into the collection?”
Shuting: “For the X.O. I combined fabrics and textile techniques with the history of Hennessy… I also did a lot of hand drawings and paintings (for each bottle) with different categories and different meanings. V.S.O.P is more playful and younger, so we played more with sequins into the design. The Paradis has a more artistic and luxury vibe so we added a piece of leather to the bottle as we wanted to bring the fashion texturesinto the cognac design.”.
Perfect: "What made you partner with Hennessy?”
Shuting: “Hennessy is an international brand. This partnership has given me a chance to show my creativity and connection to Chinese culture and bring it to the global stage”.
Perfect: “What does Chinese New Year mean to you?”
Shuting: “Chinese New Year for me is about celebration. It's about celebrating together, and forChinese people it’s very important. It's the biggest celebration of the whole year. New year is about being together with friends and family”.
The limited edition Reimagination collection; comprising of V.S.O.P, X.O and Paradis is available exclusively at Hennessy’sHarrods Boutique, until stocks last.
