Johnnie Walker gets a 21st century makeover

Haute couture designer Christian Lacroix has restyled Johnnie Walker, the 19th-century dandy displayed on Red Label whisky.

The result is a 20 inch tall statue that will be auctioned on the eBay website in December, a spokesman for the designer said today.

The distiller teamed up with the French fashion designer to support Sidaction, a Paris-based charity that champions research on Aids.

The modernised Johnnie wears carefully studied messy hair, a hooded black sweatshirt, a large tie dangling on an open shirt and a small, tightly knotted scarf. Though he still walks with the same energetic stride, the modern JW has disposed of his riding boots, whip and tailcoat, and sports a tight red waistcoat on a pair of sleek white jeans.

Lacroix said he strongly identified with the “dandy” walker.

“He’s a code transgressor.... Our ideals had to meet somewhere in between London and Paris,” he said.

Created by the British cartoonist Tom Browne in 1908, the original portrait depicts John Walker, the man who had the idea to blend whiskies together in the early 1820s in Scotland.