The fashion house is doubling down on couture cocktails.
Over the last few years, food has emerged as the fashion world’s favourite flex – from out-there ‘art cakes’ by Sophia Stolz to Laila Gohar’s surrealists feasts, no style party is now complete without a show-stopping spread. And the same degree of attention, it seems, is increasingly being lavished on the drinks, with the news that Prada has become the first fashion house to appoint its own mixologist.
That mixologist is Remy Savage, an enfant terrible of the cocktail scene, best-known for creating the Bauhaus-inspired A Bar with Shapes for a Name in East London. He’s also behind Bar Nouveau in Paris, a trendy cocktail cubby hole in the Marais, and Bar Abstract in Lyon, a Dennis Hopper-esque bistro with a micro-distillery. All of these bars are tiny – but they wield global influence, thanks to their unique mix of creativity, playfulness and sharp design.
I’ve long been an admirer of Savage. He is a brilliant flavorsmith, with a commitment to doing things his own way that could almost be described as punk. His bar teams operate almost like collectives; their colorful uniforms are designed by Savage himself; and they often collaborate with local designers and artists. His drinks can be cerebral, but they never lose their sense of fun – you might have a trio of tiny Martinis that contrast different types of tea, a Margarita spiked with eucalyptus or a crystal-clear cocktail served over a hand-made ice block with an iridescent cube trapped inside.
Savage doesn’t consider himself “a particularly fashionable person”. (Though I’d say he has a very strong sense of style – he makes a lot of his own clothes and on the day we speak he’s wearing a fragrance he based on the French aperitif fine à leau; «grapes, a litle bit of leather; a little patchouli, fig leaf – very cognac, with the wetness of the cellar.”). So the Prada approach came as a surprise. But when he discovered Miuccia Prada was a fellow philosophy student, he was intrigued.
“I realised a lot of her ideas were quite radical and quite intellectual – and there’s a real passion for functionalism, which I can relate to, too. I thought: this is someone super clever doing clothes and this is kind of awesome.”
Savage’s job is to devise drinks lists and cocktail recipes for Prada events and stores across the world – a stable of brands which also includes Miu Miu and Versace.
His first commission was to create the drinks list for Mi Shang Prada Rong Zhai (aka ‘Mi Shang’), Prada’s fine dining restaurant in Shanghai. Housed in a restored 1918 mansion, the restaurant was a collaboration with the movie director Wong Kar Wai, and sets out to be a fusion of Chinese culture and Milanese style.
Savage’s new list includes a Negroni infused with magnolia, which is the signature of flower of Shanghai (“It gives the drink a gingery, slightly citrussy note”); and a Milano Torino made with Campari and rosso vermouth aged in clay, a nod to traditional Chinese preserving techniques. There’s a twist on an Italian Sgroppino, made with citrus sorbet, prosecco and Longshan yellow wine, and a Martini of Chinese vodka, peony and apricot eau de vie. There’s lots of tea, too: the non-alcoholic Meeting Room blends tangerine pu-er tea, pink peppercorn and lemon salt. And for fans of Chinese spirits, there’s also a baiju tasting flight.
Presentation is exquisite. One drink comes garnished with a little nest of edible flowers. The wafer-thin glassware is beautiful but also deliberately mis-matched, “as it might be if you were serving people cocktails in your home,” says Savage. “That’s what makes it feel special”.
“I like it when drinks are at the service of an idea. And the vision at Prada is so strong. The attention to detail is so striking,” he says, producing a Prada-branded fork from the restaurant, from his pocket, to illustrate the point.
The second half of 2026 is a packed one for Prada – as well as the usual round of shows, its Foundation in Milan is launching the next chapter of its neuroscience project Human Brains. There’s also a ‘Global Antiquity’ exhibition in November. More than enough, I suspect, to keep even a livewire like Savage busy.
Добавить комментарий