By Zachary Costello
Fashion and drinking have always had rather more in common than we like to admit. Both are matters of taste, ritual and, occasionally, very expensive mistakes. The right drink can complete an evening in much the same way that the right coat completes an outfit; there is a certain pleasure in knowing exactly what belongs in the glass.
So, in the interests of research, I have been considering what some of our favourite fashion characters might order at the bar.
Audrey Hepburn — Champagne
It is difficult to imagine Audrey Hepburn with anything too complicated in her hand. Champagne seems right: elegant, celebratory and never particularly interested in shouting about itself. She had the extraordinary ability to make simplicity look like effortlessness, which is perhaps why a glass of Champagne feels more appropriate than any elaborate cocktail. There is also something wonderfully old-fashioned about the idea of ordering Champagne simply because it is Tuesday evening and one happens to be wearing a good dress.
David Bowie — The White Russian
Bowie is rather harder to pin down, which is precisely why I like the White Russian for him. It has an almost ridiculous combination of sophistication and strangeness: vodka, coffee liqueur and cream. It shouldn't work, and yet somehow does. Bowie spent his career doing much the same thing with clothes. He took things that ought not to belong together and made them seem inevitable.
Jane Birkin — A Glass of Bordeaux
Jane Birkin's style was famously unconcerned with appearing styled. She could wear a white shirt, jeans and a basket and make half the fashion industry reconsider its wardrobe. A glass of good Bordeaux feels appropriately unfussy: French, traditional and best enjoyed without too much ceremony. Birkin understood the value of things that became more beautiful through use, whether a leather bag or an old pair of jeans. The same principle applies rather nicely to wine.
Gianni Agnelli — Negroni
This one requires very little explanation. Agnelli had the watch worn over his shirt cuff, the beautifully cut suits and the Fiat empire; naturally, he drank Negronis. His association with the drink is well documented, and he was even said to have introduced Jackie Kennedy to the cocktail while sailing off the Amalfi Coast. It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate combination of Italian glamour and slightly dangerous confidence.
Princess Diana — Champagne
Diana's relationship with fashion became increasingly independent as her public life developed, and there is something fitting about Champagne as the drink accompanying that transformation. It belongs equally well at a royal reception and at a late-night dinner with friends. Diana's style eventually became much less about dressing as a princess and much more about dressing as herself; Champagne, thankfully, requires no explanation.
Kate Moss — Vodka Martini
Moss has always seemed to understand that the Martini is less a cocktail than an attitude. Cold, sharp and completely uninterested in fuss, it works rather well with a woman whose wardrobe has spent three decades proving that a black dress and a pair of boots can be considerably more memorable than a complicated outfit. No fruit. No umbrella. Certainly no unnecessary garnish.
Ralph Lauren — Bourbon
There is something wonderfully American about bourbon and Ralph Lauren. The designer built an entire visual world around country houses, polo fields, Ivy League tailoring and the mythology of the American West. A glass of bourbon fits neatly into that picture: substantial, unfussy and increasingly enjoyable the longer one sits with it.
Coco Chanel — Champagne, naturally
Chanel's association with Champagne is almost too perfect. She understood the theatre of a bottle being opened, the sound of the cork and the small ceremony of pouring. More importantly, she understood that luxury does not necessarily require excess. A little black dress, a string of pearls and a glass of Champagne remain one of fashion's more successful formulas.
Perhaps that is the real reason we become interested in what fashionable people drink. It is not really about the drink. It is about the ritual surrounding it, and the little clues it gives us about how somebody wishes to live.
A Martini suggests one thing; a pint of bitter quite another. Champagne says evening, whisky says conversation and a Negroni says that lunch has probably gone on longer than expected.
In the end, style is partly about knowing what suits you. The same applies at the bar.
Chin-chin.