Alice + Olivia has released a 21-piece capsule with Coca-Cola timed to the beverage’s 140th anniversary. It includes 14 ready-to-wear styles, three accessories and four pieces built around the label’s Stace Face motif, priced from $250 to $2,995.
Stacey Bendet, the label’s founder and creative director, described the partnership in terms of nostalgia, and the campaign was shot by Ellen von Unwerth, whose photographs have always treated glamour as something slightly rumpled and alive rather than polished.
That choice of photographer is the most consequential decision in the project. Von Unwerth’s images give the capsule a period texture, which keeps a 140-year-old trademark from reading as a flat graphic on a contemporary body.
For Coca-Cola, the appeal is entry into contemporary womenswear at a level above merchandise and below luxury. Jamie Ludwick, who leads global licensing at the company, framed it as a way to stretch the brand into new spaces, and the licensing history runs through Adidas, Converse, Kith, Marc Jacobs and Dolce + Gabbana.
For Alice + Olivia, the calculation is different. A heritage licence gives the label a story for the gifting season, a reason for existing customers to visit, and a piece of American iconography that photographs well in a crowded feed.
The capsule is available now. Its longer test is whether a soda mark reads as heritage in five years, or simply as an advertisement that was worn once.
