Gaurav Gupta’s Chivas Regal collaboration turns Scotch into surrealism — and fashion into fantasy

If mythology ever got a luxury rebrand, Gaurav Gupta would be the creative director, and now, the mixologist too.

This season, the visionary Indian couturier, the man responsible for Beyoncé’s molten Grammys gown and Deepika Padukone’s liquid-sculpture couture, has turned his hand to something completely unexpected: whisky. Specifically, a global partnership with Chivas Regal, the world’s most famous luxury Scotch, for two limited-edition bottles, the Chivas XV and Chivas 12, timed perfectly for Diwali and the festive season.

It’s fashion and whisky in the same breath, both smoky, both golden, both indulgent and most importantly, both work.

A meeting of worlds

Gaurav Gupta X Chivas Regal - YouTube

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“Chivas called me and said, ‘We want to do our biggest global fashion collaboration, and we want to start from the East,’” Gupta recalls, his tone hovering somewhere between disbelief and amusement. “And they said, ‘We think you’re the global star from the East.’ I loved that. I loved the energy.”

The collaboration arrives just as Gupta’s label hits its 20-year mark, a milestone moment for one of India’s most original creative exports. His brand has long been synonymous with what he calls “future primitive”, an aesthetic that fuses ancient mythology with hypermodern glamour, the old gods reimagined in metallic drapes and sculptural curves.

So when Chivas Regal handed him an open brief, “Create whatever you want”, Gupta did what he does best: built a world. “That’s every creative person’s dream, right? No limits. So I made a short fantasy film with three creatures I designed myself: a Winged Panther, an Infinity Serpent, and the Third-Eye Sun. They represent freedom, infinite possibility, and illumination.”

These mythic symbols didn’t come from nowhere. They’ve haunted Gupta’s work for years, appearing in beadwork, in jewellery, in the subconscious of his collections. “I’ve always lived between worlds,” he says. “I don’t believe in geography or time. These creatures are me. I’ve had flying dreams since childhood. I’m the panther, I’m the bird.”

Alchemy in a bottle

The result of this world-building is two bottles that feel like portals. The Chivas XV x Gaurav Gupta edition gleams in decadent gold, its design weaving indigenous Indian motifs into a futuristic pattern of light and shadow. It feels ceremonial, the kind of object that could be at home on a marble bar or in an art gallery. The Chivas 12 version takes the opposite tack: silver, sleek, almost lunar. Together, they’re night and day, fire and ice, Scotch and sculpture.

Gupta’s eye for balance, that constant tension between the ethereal and the earthy, gives these bottles a rare credibility in the age of collaboration overload. “Culture should be fluid,” he says. “Fantasy flies over geography. Everyone knows wings, snakes, the sun; these are universal symbols. I just want to tickle people’s imagination.”

For Chivas Regal, the partnership hits a sweet spot between heritage and reinvention. “Gaurav’s ability to blend culture, art and modern luxury perfectly aligns with our ambition to redefine what luxury means today,” says Nick Blacknell, Chivas Regal’s Global Marketing Director. “His vision embodies our ‘I Rise, We Rise’ ethos — it’s about creativity as collective elevation.”

Whisky, but make it couture

In person, Gupta talks like someone mid-design, fast, fluid, ideas spilling over each other. He describes the collaboration as a two-year conversation that spanned continents: London, Berlin, Delhi. “They flew down a whole team to shoot me against a massive green screen,” he laughs. “There were CGI creatures, 3D builds, the works. It felt like a movie set. Actually, I might make movies next. From these creatures. Why not?”

It wouldn’t be a stretch. His fashion shows already play like interdimensional theatre. And his world, metallic, mystical, and defiantly optimistic, fits perfectly with Chivas’s progressive ethos. “They’re very future-thinking,” he says. “They’re going zero waste by 2026, zero carbon footprint, that’s huge. I try to do that too: our packaging is upcycled ocean plastic, our chiffons are silk, not polyester. It matters.”

If that all sounds a bit cosmic for a whisky collab, that’s precisely the point. Chivas Regal didn’t just want a pretty bottle; they wanted an artistic statement. Something that could bridge old-world craft with new-world imagination.

And somehow, between Gupta’s winged panther and Chivas’s golden blend, they’ve bottled that tension, the idea that luxury can be mythic and modern all at once.

The infinite pour

So, what’s next for a man who’s designed for the Met Gala, reinvented couture, and now designed the bottle you’ll want on your bar cart? “Everything,” he grins. “I can design anything, clothes, cities, universes. There’s no limit. I just go with the flow.”

But for now, the flow is whisky, preferably poured over ice. “I’ll be drinking Chivas this Diwali, of course,” he says. “My favourite cocktail is called Infinity. I want people to feel infinite during the festival of light. That’s what this collaboration is about, expanding the imagination.”

It’s a big idea, distilled into a bottle: the world’s smoothest Scotch meets fashion’s most fluid thinker. The result isn’t just a limited edition, it’s a reminder that art, like good whisky, is meant to be shared.

Gaurav Gupta x Chivas Regal Limited Editions are available globally this Diwali season, from select luxury retailers, featuring Chivas Regal XV and Chivas Regal 12 Year Old in collectable gold and silver designs.

• Whisky that wants you to taste with your feelings