We find ourselves invited to a plethora of events in London, everything from new bar launches, wine tastings, new menus and even the launch of a new urinal concept (yep, we know…unusual!) but tonight, it’s an event with a beer, a vodka and London Fashion week. I’m comfortable with the beer and vodka, it’s what I do. I would like to think that I’ve developed the correct etiquette for chatting to my peers, gleaming bits of information in order to scribe a good review of the evening and associated product for you our dear readers, but fashion…what is the etiquette here? I conjure up images of cads, fashionistas, beautiful people and movers and shakers in the bemusing world of fashion and design.
Normally, it’s a case of picking something from my wardrobe that feels like it fits the purpose, but I no longer have the casual abandon on that score and have to give it much more thought as I need to look like I belong to that tribe. It reminds me of a YouTube clip that a friend sent recently on how to gate crash parties. Now it’s important to point out here that I’m not a gate crasher, I only have one story relating to that which was a wedding over 10 years ago when I was much younger and less fearful of the consequences of crashing the most important day of the lovely girl’s life. Anyway, I digress, my point is that in the clip, one thing did jump out, and that was to look like you are supposed to be there, something about social compliance and acceptance of others if you act like you are a part of their tribe. So on the tube, dressed in a brown vintage velvet blazer and a pink shirt, I’m feeling smug, and perhaps they will assume that I am a designer, maybe a brand label owner, or even a TV personality, despite my looking more Liberace than Robert Pattinson.
The evening is a celebration of Belgian beer Duvel, who teamed up with UK designers to design the next new glassware for this tasty Belgian Ale and hosted at the Bluebird in Chelsea with O:By Tank. It is at this point that I digress again. I’m a self-confessed beer pervert and I like nothing more than ranting about my displeasure when a bartender serves up a crafted beer in whatever glass he or she can lay their hands on. It is this sort of injustice to the hundreds of years craft from the brewer that grinds my gears. In Belgium, they will not serve you the beer if they don’t have the correct glass; it’s as simple as that. The glass is not just a way of the brewery getting its branded glass in front of you, it serves to accentuate aromas (70 percent of the flavour of beer is in its aroma), present the beer as the brewer intended and it improves the overall experience to the drinker. Duvel are a first class act when it comes to this, and their balloon glass is almost as famous as the deceptively high alcohol content in their beer. So, aptly teaming up with designers and the launch of London Fashion week is a piece of marketing gold and I am delighted that so many people are drinking such a good beer at an event where all too often they would be throwing back fizzy Mexican soda water .
Comfortably nestled with London’s cool in my salmon pink and brown velvet and with beer in hand, I assume that I am a part of the clan. I’m at ease hob nobbing with designers and clothes horses, even if I might be feeling a bit like Mike Baldwin at a knicker exhibition in Manchester. Working the room I am even asked to pose for a photograph which is surely a good sign, or one for the internet for the photography and fashion community to laugh at. I begin to get Duvel legs at about 10pm and so decide that my work here is done, and with that, I head back to East London with a new respect for the fashion world, and a renewed love of the Belgian brew. I leave you with a couple of final thoughts, I suppose a little like Jerry Springer. Firstly, I love the new glasses that Duvel have commissioned. They will be taking the final three from the UK to Paris next month to select the winners from a European wide competition and so do look out for them, and secondly, would I have got away with dressing like that at the launch of a new urinal?
Further information on Duvel and the new glassware www.duvelcollection.com
Written by Gary Corrin
Date posted: 22/02/2012
Category: News.
Tags: beer, Belgium, Duvel, LFW.
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