Veuve Clicquot x Yinka Ilori

Veuve Clicquot is taking over a former church media library in Milan with a Yinka Ilori installation called “Chasing the Sun,” and it is timed for Milan Design Week from April 20 to April 26, 2026 at Mediateca Santa Teresa on Via Moscova 28. (fuorisalone.it) The project is not just a room dressing for a party. Fuorisalone lists it as an immersive installation in the Brera Design District, with a connected Clicquot Café serving the house’s cuvées alongside an all-day food menu. (fuorisalone.it) Ilori is a British-Nigerian artist and designer whose work is built around saturated color, public installations, and furniture that often pulls from West African visual culture and London street life. Veuve Clicquot is using that visual language to push a campaign built around sun, optimism, and togetherness. (wallpaper.com) (breradesigndistrict.it) The color doing most of the work here is Clicquot Yellow. Veuve Clicquot says that yellow has been on the house’s labels since 1877, so Ilori’s brief was tied to a brand code that is nearly 150 years old, not a seasonal palette choice. (wallpaper.com) The collaboration also includes objects meant to sit next to the bottle, not just around it. Reports on the launch say the limited-edition line includes a Champagne bucket, a calabash-shaped bottle holder, and a gift box that reworks Veuve Clicquot’s arrow motif. (wwd.com) That calabash detail is the most personal part of the project. Ilori told Women’s Wear Daily that he used the vessel because it is common across West African culture and let him connect the commission to his Nigerian family background. (wwd.com) Milan Design Week is the stage because luxury brands now use it the way fashion houses use Paris Fashion Week: as a place to launch objects, environments, and collaborations in front of a global design crowd. The City of Milan says the 2026 edition runs from April 20 to April 26 across historic districts and new routes through the city. (comune.milano.it) Veuve Clicquot has been moving deeper into design for years, and this launch fits that playbook. Trade coverage describes “Chasing the Sun” as part of the house’s expanding presence in the global design world, with the bottle treated less like packaging and more like the center of a collectible object system. (interiordaily.com) (wwd.com) So the headline is bigger than one bright installation. A Champagne house founded in Reims is using a London designer’s West African references, a Milan design festival, and a yellow label first used in 1877 to turn a bottle release into a full design event. (wallpaper.com) (wwd.com) (fuorisalone.it)