The Story Behind Our Proudly Sydney, Proudly For Everyone Rainbow Florals
When we approach a new product launch, we take inspiration from all around us. For botanical spirits, we showcase their ingredients and serve them in cocktails that celebrate those botanicals. For whiskies or rums, we’re often spurred by their tasting notes. Our master distiller, Dave, writes the most beautiful and evocative tasting notes; it’s impossible not to be inspired by them.
We started using and featuring Australian florals from when Archie Rose first opened in 2014. Australian botanicals feature heavily in our botanical spirits, so those notes found their way into the drinks and the settings we shot them in. We are, after all, an Australian company, and wherever possible, we try to use Australian ingredients. It makes sense in terms of sustainability, but it also makes sense when they’re often so intense in flavour and singular in their profile.
We found out we’d been successful in our bid to become the proud gin partner to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras during a shoot with long-term collaborator and photographer Nikki To. Immediately, I grabbed a couple of bunches of flowers in the colours of the rainbow from across the road. In about 30 minutes, we’d pulled together a quick snap that was only ever intended to be a partnership announcement for social media. I know I’m sort of downplaying it, but I think the best work often comes from instinct. Stephen Fry described the best work in acting as coming about when you’re relaxed and prepared. It’s the same thing with anything creative. I was bursting with pride and joy as I started plucking petals from flowers. From that place of joy and energy, the flowers assembled themselves.
Everyone loved it. And each year, when we work on the creative execution, we discuss moving away from it. But for some reason, the rainbow florals keep calling us back. As the pride flag became the progressive pride flag, we incorporated additional colours, each time building on the theme and layering more and more florals in. The original hangs in my office and now serves as a great souvenir and a joyous backdrop for online meetings. The bottle itself seems proud but also totally at ease. Nestled in its flower bed, anchoring the colours, seeming to be the stem of this proud tree. It’s saying, hey, I’m here, and so are you. We’re together, whatever colour of the rainbow we are.
This year, we placed the trans colours front and centre to form the bottle’s halo. Our trans siblings are under fire more than ever before. If you spend much time on social media, it doesn’t take long to see the increase in hatred aimed at this community. The same arguments used when I came out in the 90s are getting shovelled around again now. But just like the 90s, hatred won’t win. Love will. It always does.
