Virgil Abloh just became a wine bottle designer, and he’s still expressing things unsaid

It’s hard to keep up with all of Virgil Abloh’s work. Over the past few months, I’ve tracked him as he became Louis Vuitton’s men’s artistic director, launched an entirely see-through suitcase for luxury suitcase brand Rimowa, and designed the tutu dress that Serena Williams wore to make her entrance to the U.S. Open. (He also had time to create a custom pair of matching sneakers for Williams’s 11-month-old daughter, Alexis.)

And now Abloh has become a bottle designer. In conjunction with New York Fashion Week, Moët & Chandon brought in Abloh to design the bottle of its Nectar Imperial Rosé. As we’ve come to expect from Abloh, his approach to the bottle is subtle but thought provoking. Those familiar with this beverage will recognize its pink and black label. Abloh re-created the label in white, a reference to his Off-White label, and on the side of the bottle, there are the words, “DO NOT DROP.”

It’s something we all think when we hold a fancy bottle of wine, and Abloh is all about expressing things that go unsaid. (It bears parallels to the Rimowa collaboration he did, which allowed you to see all of the contents of the suitcase, forcing you to rethink what should be hidden or exposed.) But with these bottles, it’s also a funny, playful approach, which is all the more interesting because Moët & Chandon is such an iconic brand. The bottles will be available to purchase in October, at a price of $59.99.

This is Abloh’s first collaboration with an alcohol brand, but given the pace of his collaborations, I doubt it will be his last. Abloh seems eager to prove that designers shouldn’t be pigeonholed by a medium, but should be able to apply their aesthetic vision to anything from a dress to a bottle. He also doesn’t seem worried about being overexposed or having his fingerprint on projects across too many brands or industries. It’s an interesting approach that perpetually grows his cultural influence.