Alcohol brands tap the art world to woo younger drinkers

The flirtation of art and alcohol makes sense today, as Gen Z is drinking less alcohol than previous generations

UNITED STATES - In October, Dom Perignon hosted a party at the Brant Foundation in New York City's East Village, thousands of kilometers from its home in the Champagne region of France.

At the party, which celebrated the brand's partnership with the estate of the late American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, actresses Zoe Kravitz and Natasha Lyonne, model Evan Mock and Raul Lopez, the designer of the subversive Luar fashion label, sipped the champagne as they swayed to music from the Mudd Club habitué DJ Justin Strauss.

The Basquiat painting, In Italian, a Neo-Expressionist work filled with gestural scribbles and stark images - faces, coins, dark creatures and cryptic words like "teeth" and "crown of thorns" - hung on a wall.

Throughout the room were bottles of a limited-edition release culled from a 2015 Dom Perignon vintage with labels that mirrored Basquiat motifs, including his signature crown in yellow, overlaid in a way to suggest a connection between the artist's work and Dom Perignon's shield-shaped tag.

"I think people are looking for more than just the experience of consuming," said Mr Jacques Giraco, managing partner at Dom Perignon, speaking of his company's decision to evoke the image of an artist synonymous with the gritty downtown scene of 1980s New York.

"It becomes a total experience. It conjures emotion, and that creates a stronger link with the brand."