January 2025, N°4
THE EDITO
From the very beginning, the agency Caractères Paris entered the orbit of Maison Dom Pérignon—and has remained there ever since. This pairing, as it’s called in the world of Champagne, has evolved into a long-term collaboration rooted in craftsmanship and design. It has marked a consistent commitment by Dom Pérignon to the art of the rare and refined series, either by revealing emerging talents or collaborating with renowned names in design. A look back at a unique partnership.
Limited Editions & Dom Pérignon: A story written over time
A long-term vision is naturally embedded in the DNA of one of the oldest Champagne houses. But beyond its historical roots, Dom Pérignon embraces time in a more philosophical sense—placing duration, especially the time required for maturation, at the heart of its craft. This commitment to consistency also extends to its approach to limited editions. In recent years, the Maison has increasingly favored artisanal craftsmanship and the creative partnership of Caractères Paris, as it gradually refined and formalized its desire to explore the art of the small, exclusive series.
/ Limited edition of 50 pieces Dom Pérignon x Juliette Clovis. 2021/2023
JULIETTE CLOVIS, THE FIRST
The first chapter of this journey begins with Juliette Clovis. Dom Pérignon sought a partner to explore fine craftsmanship and noble materials, as well as to help develop these highly specific projects. This collaborative process led to a meaningful encounter with Juliette Clovis—an artist who ultimately became the Maison’s chosen creative partner. Known for her exploration of diverse materials and techniques, from vinyl cutting on plexiglass to, more recently, working with Limoges porcelain, Clovis has embraced a more personal artistic path focused on life cycles. A theme that resonates deeply with Dom Pérignon’s intimate relationship with nature and the rhythm of the seasons.
It took several months of creative development, supported by the agency Caractères Paris, to bring to life a spectacular scale-like armor, produced in a limited edition of 50 signed and numbered pieces. A true feat of craftsmanship, each of the 300 individual scales was hand-applied to the bottle’s rounded form, then finished with a biomorphic enamel—shifting from platinum hues to glossy black and finally to a deep, lacquered black gradient. The effect evokes the elegant plumage of a bird or the skin of a reptile. Multiple artisans and craftspeople worked alongside Juliette Clovis and the agency throughout the production process to achieve this remarkable work of art, unveiled to the public in September 2023.
CHANGE OF SCALE
Building on the momentum of this first creation, the Champagne house aims to push its exploration of artistic craftsmanship even further with its next limited edition. This time, the scale is larger, with 80 bottles to be adorned. Dom Pérignon remains committed to celebrating materiality through a resolutely contemporary lens. To meet this new challenge, the Maison turned to Mathias Bengtsson—an artist-designer whose works feature in the collections of major institutions such as the Centre Pompidou and MoMA in New York. The choice was clear: his forward-thinking approach and the organic creativity of his metal-based forms evoke the sinuous, ever-evolving curves of the growing vine.
From 3D sketches to successive prototypes before reaching the final form—passing through crucial stages such as 3D printing and the foundry process, where everything is shaped, tested, and sometimes risked—two more years were needed before the works could “rise from the ground.” These are a series of biomimetic ornamental sculptures growing around the magnums, available in gold as a tribute to the Dom Pérignon Vintage 1999 - Plénitude 2, and in rose gold for the Vintage 2000 - Plénitude 2 Rosé, unveiled last December. A bold creative gesture and a production carried out according to the exacting standards of the craft, all orchestrated by the agency from Paris.
MATHIAS BENGTSSON, ARTIST-DESIGNER AT THE HELM
The latest limited edition series from Maison Dom Pérignon, created in partnership with the agency Caractères Paris, honors an artist of global renown—one who cultivates a uniquely singular style. This designer by training, passionate about organic design, holds up a true mirror to the way the Champagne house approaches vine cultivation and the crafting of its vintages, seeking harmony and dialogue with the diversity, elegance, and strength inherent in nature. It is around these very themes that the dialogue unfolded between Mathias Bengtsson and Dom Pérignon’s cellar master, Vincent Chaperon, to conceive a creation that elevates the relationship between nature, technology, and human creativity to its highest expression.
PUSHING THE SCULPTURAL AND TECHNICAL LIMITS OF DESIGN
The Danish artist, exiled in Stockholm for over 15 years, trained at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London as well as at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen. The most famous creations - the Slice Chair, the Cellular Chair, and the Growth Table Titanium - of the artist, who received the Finn Juhl Architecture Prize in 2011, blends craftsmanship with high technology. Notably, he invented software capable of cultivating forms—living-like organisms—starting from a digital seed. It is precisely this ambition for innovation, alongside his bio-inspired aesthetic, that convinced Dom Pérignon. The Maison shares a vision to marry savoir-faire, technology, and contemporaneity, embracing the present while honoring its rich heritage.
Mathias Bengtsson is indeed one of the most pioneering artists in his use of algorithmic language, which enables him to design objects with complex forms using innovative materials. His sculptural pieces are always visually striking and technically groundbreaking, much like those created for Dom Pérignon. These works employ artificial intelligence to generate natural shapes, offering a fascinating interplay—and subtle confusion—between nature and culture.
LARGE SERIES, HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Artisanal craftsmanship is a story of long timeframes, precision, and—above all—a profoundly human journey where the sublime risks meeting the unpredictable. It demands returning to the work repeatedly, regardless of the hours spent, guided solely by the pursuit of beauty and excellence. This is likely why it remains one of the favored languages of Champagne and spirits Houses when developing rare collections. Yet the challenge grows when these very exacting standards must be applied to larger quantities—without ever tipping into industrial territory, which has no place in the Houses we speak of. All while time remains limited to bring these projects to life.
Take, for example, the Dom Pérignon x Mathias Bengtsson limited editions: 80 sculptures that, in the eyes of their future owners, must live up to the status of an artwork—not unique, but bearing witness to creativity paired with impeccable quality in execution. Each piece undergoes rigorous inspection by the teams from Caractères Paris and the Champagne House at every critical stage of production.
Each piece is the result of masterful craftsmanship that must overcome the whims of the material, the uncertainties of the foundry kiln where the metal takes life and shape, the meticulous assembly of its three components, and the hand-gilding by skilled fingers but possibly subject to fatigue; all while keeping the budget within the limits allocated by the brand. Multiply these constraints not by 30, but by 80 pieces, and you’ll get a sense of the challenge of this endeavor: when artisanal craftsmanship demands experience, creativity, and a steady nerve!
As Mathias Bengtsson himself said, “My works for Dom Pérignon are too important to be considered jewelry, but too small to be regarded as sculptures.” Straddling proportions unfamiliar and unmastered by those who make them, and facing an unprecedented scale of production, these pieces demanded constant inventiveness and adaptability: a no man’s art that Caractères Paris has tackled—with notable skill, judging by these recent limited editions, which remain infinite in the challenges the agency had to overcome.