This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Baz Luhrmann designs $785 Champagne sabre
Hollywood film director Baz Luhrmann has released a US$785 Champagne sabre in collaboration with Barneys New York.
The pricey sabre, inscribed with the words “Truth. Beauty. Freedom. Love”, forms part of a Christmas gift collection created for the department store by Luhrmann and his costume designer wife Catherine Martin.
Other items in the Baz Dazzled Holiday collection include a $7,000 backgammon set and a $250 snow globe.
A quarter of proceeds from the collection will go to Room to Read, a charity that supports literacy and gender equality in education in developing countries.
This is not the first time the director has been involved in the drinks industry – this February he collaborated with vodka brand Absolut on a limited edition release: Absolut Oz.
To coincide with the release, Luhrmann created four cocktails designed to showcase the drop: the Tama-Glama, The Hells Bells Beach, the Cable Beach “Stairway to the Moon” and The South Avoca Elevator
Luhrmann shot to fame with the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom and has gone on to direct Moulin Rouge, and remakes of Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby. The 52-year-old Australian was born Mark Anthony Luhrmann.
I don’t wish to appear a kill-joy but sabering a champagne bottle is stupid and dangerous… it should be done by no one as the possibility of serious injury to either the saberer or anyone in range is very real. This is not a new craze – I first witnessed this being done by an ambassador for Moet & Chandon in the late 1970’s at a restaurant I was worked at. Because I was the Wine Stewart/Sommelier who allowed this to take place I also lost my job when it was explained to me the potential dangers of an exploding bottle. Later, an acquaintance suffered severe damage to their hand and arm when the back end of the bottle blew out, instead of the crown of the bottle… Sommeliers and trade people who encourage this are setting very bad examples.