Martell launches gifting collection 2020

Martell, one of the oldest Cognac makers in the world, has released a trio of special gifting collection for this festive season.

In this limited-edition collection, Martell renews its Martell Exclusives initiative and collaborates with three international creative talents to reinterpret three signature products of the house.

The three creatives, from three continents and three different fields, are namely American rapper Quavo, Chinese fashion designer Angel Chen and French artist Pierre Marie.

Each talent focused on a Martell product that spoke to their personal creative vision, resulting in a series of collectible designs which revisit the legacy of Martell with freedom of expression and a bold, contemporary style.

All three designs share a common theme: that of travel, with the international dimension of the house and the founding voyage of Jean Martell proving a source of inspiration.

Quavo is responsible for the creative new design of Martell Blue Swift. “Martell and I go back a long way. I’m part of the Martell family. This design was inspired by a journey I made to visit Martell in Cognac and my impressions of that experience,” he said.

As a longstanding ambassador of Maison Martell, his design mixes Martell icons with symbols of hip-hop culture to evoke the daring fusion represented by the “boundary-breaking” spirit drink, which is made with VSOP cognac and finished in Kentucky bourbon casks.

Interactive and augmented-reality experience is infused on the giftbox design, as certain icons come to life when scanned with a smartphone, revealing more about the savoir-faire behind Martell Blue Swift, as well as Maison Martell’s partnership with Quavo. The gift box also comes along with two engraved tumblers.

Angel Chen reflected her cosmopolitan background by mixing traditional Chinese motifs with modern Western aesthetics in her new Martell Noblige design. “For me, Maison Martell is built on tradition, but also open to the vitality of the contemporary world. This energy is at the core of my inspiration,” Chen said.

Angel Chen captures the vibrant energy of Martell Noblige in an exuberant illustration of a fantastical sea voyage showing a dragon boat navigating raging waves. The design is said to be “an evocation of Maison Martell’s first shipments to China in 1858, as well as the encounter of East and West represented by this collaboration”.

Pierre Marie recreated Martell Cordon Bleu with detailed designs that fuse references to ancestral craft techniques and contemporary visual codes.

He recalled, “when I visited Maison Martell in Cognac, I was fascinated to discover the archives, and in particular the illustrated posters which were used in advertising campaigns. They were the inspiration for the poetic, narrative style of my designs for Martell Cordon Bleu.”

The first of the artist’s two designs, each of which is accompanied by a specially composed poem, is entitled The Vine and the Oak, which refers to the origin of where Cognac is born.

The second design, entitled The Epic Voyage, is exclusive to global travel retail. It illustrates the subsequent journey of the vine and the oak around the world with motifs of ships, trains and hot-air balloons, interspersed with red and gold clouds, a traditional Chinese symbol of good fortune.

The Martell Exclusives gifting collection is available from November in major retailers.