Johnnie Walker, the whisky traditionally marketed with the help of a top-hatted, red-coated Regency dandy, has launched its own range of clothes.

Diageo, the company behind the world's biggest drinks group, has teamed up with Franco Ziche, an Italian knitwear company, to produce menswear in Europe and the US. The company generates almost half its sales from Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker and Guinness and has been trying to boost global spirits sales. It needs to offset a slowdown in Europe which contributed to a £400,000 (€280,000) drop in turnover in the year to June 2004.

It says potential customers will not be people wanting to dress in early 19th century costume or be brand junkies wearing Caterpillar boots, Marlboro coats and Guinness sweatshirts. A spokesman said: "This is not branded clothing but tailored clothing. There will not be a label or an an embroidered bottle of Scotch on show anywhere." The company is now making an extra effort to woo the "international, sophisticated, cosmopolitan man, aged between 28 and 42" .

Maurizio Bonas, the Italian designer who created the collection, used Johnnie Walker's black and gold label to come up with a collection in black and camel. - (Financial Times)