Black Dog Calls Manish Malhotra. Blenders Pride Knows the Number

Black Dog is getting dressed for the festive season. The couturier is Manish Malhotra. Blenders Pride knows his work.

In 2021, the Pernod Ricard brand introduced a limited-edition pack designed by Malhotra, complete with intricate patterns, metallic accents and an invitation to “taste the stardom”. Now, Diageo’s Black Dog Triple Gold Reserve has enlisted him for a gold-on-gold festive pack and accompanying glass.

Fashion has regular clients. Whisky, it turns out, has a shared address book.

There is something rather enjoyable about this. Two spirits businesses competing for consumer attention have, at different points, called on the same designer’s ability to make an occasion look more glamorous. The history supplies the humour without requiring an imaginary falling-out, a stolen idea or a dramatic change of allegiance.

Malhotra has designed for different clients. The bottles have acquired something new to wear.

THE OCCASION IS THE CONNECTION

Black Dog’s new pack draws on Indian festive motifs, with floral, botanical and ornamental elements moving across the outer carton and glass. That continuity gives the collaboration a visible expression: the presentation and the object used for serving belong to the same design story.

Malhotra connects the assignment to his work around bridal and festive occasions. Black Dog connects it to gifting, entertaining and celebration. The common ground is easy to understand. Both are interested in how people mark a moment and what they choose to bring to it.

A whisky gift can make several statements before the bottle is opened. It can signal familiarity with the recipient’s preferences, an awareness of the occasion or the wish to give something that feels specially chosen. A designer pack adds another way to make that choice feel considered.

Marketing and branding experts reckon that gifting changes the purchase decision because the buyer is also thinking about how the gift will be received. "A designer can help a familiar product feel appropriate for a particular occasion, while giving the giver another way to express taste,” says Ashita Aggarwal, professor of marketing at SP Jain Institute of Management & Research.

Malhotra’s contribution sits comfortably within that task. The assignment announced here concerns the pack and glass. It gives him a surface, a palette and an occasion to work with. There is no need to demand that the man who dresses film stars first pass an examination in cask maturation.

BLENDERS PRIDE HAS THE OLD INVITATION

The earlier Blenders Pride collaboration makes this particular pairing more entertaining.

Its 2021 pack drew on Malhotra’s design vocabulary and his long association with glamour. The company positioned it around craftsmanship and stardom; Malhotra described it as an extension of an existing relationship. Pernod Ricard’s own announcement still records the partnership.

Black Dog’s current collaboration belongs to a different brand, a different brief and a later festive season. The connection between the two is the designer’s recognisable cultural identity. He carries associations that can travel across assignments, just as his work travels across weddings, films and red carpets.

For the drinks brands, the creative task is to make that identity work in their own colours. A designer’s signature can open the conversation; the finished object gives the collaboration its particular character.

Collaborations work when people can recognise what each partner contributes. The designer brings a visual identity and a set of associations; the drinks brand brings its own history and occasion. "The interesting part is what they create together,” says Aggarwal.

Black Dog, incidentally, already has experience of visiting a couture house. Its earlier Triple Gold Reserve festive collaboration with Falguni Shane Peacock was announced in 2024. The designers’ own account describes translating their intricate, glamorous aesthetic into the whisky’s presentation.

This is a recurring design conversation. The wardrobe has more than one hanger.

THE BOTTLE HAS BEEN TO FASHION WEEK

Globally, spirits and fashion have been exchanging invitations for years.

In 2011, Chivas Regal unveiled a Vivienne Westwood edition of its 18-year-old Scotch at London Fashion Week. The bottle wore her Union Jack treatment, and the release was limited to 2,500 bottles. Westwood followed earlier Chivas collaborations with Alexander McQueen and Christian Lacroix.

There was a recognisable visual idea at work: an established fashion signature applied to an established Scotch. The bottle became a small piece of the designer’s world, with its own place in the drinks cabinet.

Hennessy took the relationship in several directions with Kim Jones in 2023. The cognac house’s collection included a sculptural X.O Masterpiece, a limited-edition bottle and the HNY Low sneaker. Only 200 examples of the Masterpiece were produced.

Jones drew inspiration from the way historic Hennessy bottles were wrapped for protection. That reference became part of the couture-like treatment of the vessel, while the sneaker carried the collaboration into an actual wardrobe.

The cognac had acquired footwear.

These projects show how much room there is within the idea of a designer collaboration. A pack, a bottle covering, a decanter and a fashion object can each make a different contribution. They can offer visual pleasure, a collectible object or a fresh way to encounter a familiar brand.

The partnership does not have to perform every one of those jobs.

FOUR SEASONS, FOUR SCOTCHES

Johnnie Walker’s 2025 collaboration with Olivier Rousteing, then creative director of Balmain, brought fashion into the blending conversation as well.

For the first Johnnie Walker Vault release, Couture Expression, Rousteing worked with master blender Dr Emma Walker on four seasonal expressions: spring, summer, fall and winter. They were presented in Baccarat crystal decanters, with metallic treatments corresponding to the seasons.

Here, the fashion calendar supplied a creative framework. Walker translated the moods and ideas into whisky, while the vessels extended the design.

It is a useful companion to the Black Dog story because Johnnie Walker and Black Dog both sit within Diageo. One collaboration explores new expressions through a designer’s imagination; the other gives an established expression a festive presentation. Each has a clearly identifiable assignment.

Fashion can enter through the packaging, the object, the experience or the creative brief for the liquid. The pleasure lies in seeing what the particular partnership makes possible.

A GIFT WITH SOMETHING TO WEAR

The fair test for Black Dog and Malhotra is whether the result feels distinctive, attractive and suited to its intended occasion. A beautiful pack and a thoughtfully designed glass can be worthwhile contributions in themselves.

A collaboration can create a fresh reason to consider a familiar brand. "Its lasting value comes when the design becomes part of the experience people enjoy and associate with that brand, beyond the announcement of the partnership,” says Aggarwal.

For now, the story’s charm is in the company it keeps: Malhotra’s current Black Dog assignment, his earlier Blenders Pride pack, Westwood’s dressed-up Chivas and a Hennessy collaboration that found room for shoes.

The drinks cabinet has become quite the social calendar. Blenders Pride has an old photograph. Black Dog has a fresh invitation. Manish Malhotra has another occasion to dress.