NEW YORK — The myriad incarnations of Absolut just keep on coming, but they are taking a different shape.
The heavily advertised vodka label has rounded up 10 up-and-coming designers from different countries to create a bag inspired by a word printed on the face of an Absolut bottle. This time around it was “famous,” and for Germany’s Désirée Klein that translated into a bag with what looks like an Absolut bottle stashed in it. “Everyone knows the famous bottle,” she explained.
If this all sounds a little like Absolut overkill, it should come as no surprise that the company selected countries that are important markets to the brand and then found the designers.
“The countries were often unusual choices and therefore [it was] harder to find designers,” said Keith Bell, creative director of KesselsKramer, the Amsterdam company that got the project.
Some of the 150 limited-edition bags were shipped to fashion editors, even though the collection will not be sold in stores or online.
“We want the real items to be hard to find,” Bell said. “We envision handbag fights between fashion journalists to try and snatch a favorite bag or T-shirt.”
Dutch art photographer Elspeth Diederix has shot a look book, showing the bags surrounded by items designers said they would keep in them if they were famous. Poland’s Aga Siereks and her brothers Pshemko and Tomek managed to not let their new-found fame get too inflated. The trio went with a humble laundry bag made of recycled material.
“If you ask people around the globe what the most famous and the most used bag is, we think you will find it is not a Gucci or Fendi bag, but a simple laundry bag,” Aga Siereks said.