This afternoon, fashion designer Vera Wang debuted her premium Italian prosecco, PARTY. She said it’s meant to instill, “a bit of joy, celebration, dancing, laughing; things we haven’t been able to embrace this past year and a half.”
The process of designing and bottling PARTY began two years ago, when Wang said she was looking to create a drink for weddings and special occasions. The ready-to-wear bridal designer said that prosecco seemed like an organic extension to her brand as the Italian sparkling wine is the most widely consumed beverage at weddings. According to a study by Laithwaite Wines in 2015, 63 percent of couples toasted with prosecco over 8 percent who toasted with champagne. “It’s not that the brand is expanding, it’s just a natural pivot to things that I feel are relevant to us; if anything else can help us connect with the consumer, that’s what’s important to us,” said Wang on adding prosecco to an existing line-up of bridal, jewelry, fragrance and stemware.
Fashion designer Vera Wang released a premium Italian Prosecco, titled PARTY.
However, as the pandemic cancelled weddings, among a multitude of milestone celebrations, Wang embraced a new realization. “Prosecco is not only about weddings, it’s about celebrating life,” emphasized Wang. “You could be celebrating by yourself, or you could be celebrating small moments, daily moments, not simply milestones.”
Outfitted in a metallic sheen and neon nomenclature, PARTY’s bottle supports Wang’s latest work in fashion with neon, which she said implies modernity, and a youthful energy. “Neon is a strong part of my present vocabulary,” she said, adding that in relation to the prosecco, this is the “funnier, crazier, side of me that I don’t always show or express.”
Wang presented this comparison in reference to the limited edition vodka she released with Chopin in February of this year, justifying her two sides as a designer. While prosecco embodies her bright, bold styles and celebrations of day-to-day life, she says the vodka reflects her minimalist attitude and what she represents with ready-to-wear. “Chopin [vodka] is something I drink at night; something that is very sexy and dark, like my black clothing,” shared Wang. “Prosecco is the party side of me!”
Wang admitted that crafting the prosecco was less of a party, rather more a learning experience, as she and a close network of friends and family sampled through “a lot” of profiles, eventually reverting back to the fourth profile they tried, which on the nose, presents apples and stone fruit, like white peaches, while fresh acidity marks the palate. The prosecco is produced by Araldica (the producer of the best-selling Moscato in America) in the Permonte region by second-generation winemaker Claudio Manera.
Wang said her memories of sipping prosecco during Italian lunches inspired her to originally choose prosecco as her next undertaking, however, now she will enjoy the bubbles anywhere, from the beaches of Capri or Positano to the Hamptons or Malibu. “It’s really about what the drink conjures up, the sense of memory and familiarity and repetition and things you really like,” Wang concluded. “And if you like something, you like to have it more than once.”
