Last night, July 14 Bacardi Global held its inaugural NYFW: Men’s Cocktail Collection as part of New York Fashion Week: Men’s.
Three of the city’s top mixologists were paired with three distinctive menswear designers to collaborate on a collection of signature cocktails featuring Bacardi’s most iconic brands – Bombay Sapphire Gin, Grey Goose and Bacardi Gran Reserva. The Knockturnal was on the scene for the House of Bombay x Rochambeau cocktail unveiling where guests enjoyed 3 original cocktails crafted by the Edition Hotel’s Director of Bars, Matthew Charles. Coming straight from the Rochambeau runway show, guests also nibbled on fancy versions of oysters, burgers and fries, and chicken nuggets while mingling with Rochambeau’s designers Laurence Chandler and Josh Cooper.
We chatted with both Matthew Charles and Laurence Chandler about cocktails, fashion and more in the interviews below:
The Knockturnal: Tell us the inspiration behind the drinks you created for tonight’s event?
Matthew: This time of year you can’t go wrong with some cucumber, right? Cucumber and mint keeping it simple with fresh lime, its just delicious. It looks pretty, its fun and you can have 10 of them! The idea for me Rochambeau is young, its colorful – they aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel but what they do is execute really really great lines. And so I wanted to do the same with the cocktail. Fresh ingredients, using the best quality products.
The Knockturnal: And did you see the line before you started creating these cocktails?
Matthew: Absolutely yeah. That’s what inspired me. When I looked at the line and spoke to them, they had just been in France in Paris and I had just been in the south of France myself – they are very inspired by Europe and color and I feel like our partnership meshes really really well.
The Knockturnal: Do you have any tips for people making their own cocktails at home this summer?
Matthew: Absolutely. So, when I’m training my bartenders I tell them to think of it like they’re in the kitchen cooking, right? So be playful and taste a bit as you go, add a little of this a little bit of that. I’m not someone who is a chemist with making a cocktail, I’m more about the fun element – dinner parties, fresh ingredients, everyone having fun. Maybe getting someone to come up and shake or cut the lime, make a party of it! The same way you would have a dinner party, have a cocktail party.
The Knockturnal: Tell us about the line and what you debuted today.
Laurence: We are very excited, we did our first formal runway show. We had the support of the CFDA and Amazon fashion, we wanted to keep it light and spring so we had some pops of color.. Some pinks, vermillion, light blues. A lot of times in the past people think of us as having a darker palette, so we took some risks this season and it worked.
The Knockturnal: How did you end up partnering with Bombay Sapphire?
Laurence: It’s fantastic – being a young label, its always a struggle sometimes to pull off a bigger opportunity like a show and when you have an established brand like Bombay come into the conversation you’re able to make the decision you want and breathe a little bit. So aside from already being fans and drinking Bombay it was a perfect partnership for us.
The Knockturnal: And what’s your favorite cocktail tonight?
Laurence: I think the G’d Up. It just works, it describes our style. Someone from the team was like what’s it mean and I was like “oh, we’re G’d Up”
Cocktails from the evening included:
Gothic Summer
2 parts BOMBAY® Dry Gin
1 part lemon juice
0.25 vanilla syrup
2 dashes of rhubarb bitters
2 dashes of Peychaud bitters
Shake and serve over ice in a rocks glass
G’d Up
2 parts BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® East Gin
Bar spoon vanilla syrup
Muddled ginger and limes
Shake and serve up in a coup glass
Mr. Wright
2 parts BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Gin
2 oz. Cucumber water
.25 Simple syrup
Muddled mint and limes
Dash of Angostura bitters
Shake and serve over ice in a rocks glass
