How Bottega Veneta used to look like before the "New" Bottega

«Craftsmanship in motion» is the motto with which Matthieu Blazy decided to sum up his idea of Bottega Veneta at the time of his first collection. Blazy,  an immensely skilled designer, turned what was supposed to be a crash landing into one of the biggest successes for the Kering group. Before him, the brand had been led by Daniel Lee, who brought it back into the limelight after years in which its fame had been swamped by the clamor of streetwear, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and a generalized maximalism that is perhaps the fiercest antithesis of its ethos. However the story of the brand whose shows had become after 2005, to quote Vogue, «tentpoles of Milan Fashion Week», is much longer than Daniel Lee's, nor was Tomas Maier's very long creative tenure of 17 years as boring as it is often believed in fact it was he who established the famous "cornerstones" of the brand while also founding the brand's School of Leather Goods in Vicenza: «Outstanding craftsmanship; timeless yet innovative design; contemporary functionality; and the highest quality materials to define anything from Bottega Veneta». Looking at all the creatives who even before Tomas Maier had relaunched the brand, such as creative director Laura Moltedo, stylist Katie Grand, and designers Giles Deacon and Edward Buchanan, it is easy to realize how the creative directors of the New Bottega added their own personal vision to an aesthetic stratigraphy that has been remarkably consistent over the years. Minus the Puddle Boots and the trompe-l'œil leather jeans, in fact, that fluid, deconstructed silhouette, that play of airy, dense textures, that oh-so-tactile approach to materials have been a foundation of the brand for very long years. It was precisely Tomas Maier (and we'll soon see how) who is credited with keeping the brand's metaphorical flame burning at a time when, on the one hand, the cheerful, colorful chaos of Y2K subcultures was rampant and, on the other, the advent of streetwear was pressing fashion.

Our story begins in the 1990s. Back then Bottega already had decades of history behind it, yet it was struggling to keep up with the wave of minimalist, metrosexual innovation that was conquering the fashion industry. Bottega Veneta already had thirty years of life behind it and an immense fame in the field of leather goods (the famous woven bag had appeared in American Gigolo along with Armani's suits) when Laura Molteno, formerly Braggion, widow of one of the brand's co-founders, took over its creative direction, presenting at Palazzo Serbelloni, Milan, in 1998, the first clothing collection designed together with Edward Buchanan, who had joined the brand in 1995. Scrolling through the campaigns rescued from oblivion by @scannedfashionworld for the FW98 and SS98 seasons, it is incredibly striking how the brand's DNA was already all there: one of the campaign photos depicts an oversized turtleneck sweater paired with a woven bag made from the same wool as the knit; then there's a suit of what appears to be wool bouclé with strong '70s influences, with a slouchy silhouette and a woven bag decorated with fur details; the collars of the shirts are as big as wings, the textures plastic. This period of grace was short-lived: after the debut collections, all successful, Edward Buchanan, who then between 2000 and 2001 opened his own brand Leflesh, was joined by Englishman Giles Deacon, who joined in '98. A change of positions that also corresponds to the acquisition of a majority stake in the brand (equal to 66.67 percent) by the Gucci group in February 2001, a $156 million purchase that would create what is now the foundation of Kering. 

The debut collection of Deacon, who would later go on to work with Tom Ford at Gucci, was presented in March 2001. From passé and nostalgic for the 1970s, the brand plunged into the early 2000s with a crash: it was with the FW01 collection that the diagonal-banded leather down jacket later relaunched by Daniel Lee and still sold by the brand was first created. Also with that runway show there was a no small slip: Deacon succumbed to the temptation to include logoed garments in the collection-a choice that even at the time Vogue called less successful in no uncertain terms. Deacon then, as mentioned, went to design womanswear at Gucci, and between June and May of that year Domenico De Sole performed a kind of purge against the brand's previous management. Even the Moltedo family, which had 33 percent of the shares, left the Gucci Group and Domenico De Sole in full control of the brand.

Here a mysterious gap opens up: the womanswear line was abruptly discontinued and the new creative director, German Tomas Maier focused only on accessories (WWD's Luisa Zargani does not give reasons, while Vogue's Steff Yotka hints that it was Maier's will) resuming clothing with the FW04 collection. A New York Post article from the time calls the clothing line «super-pricey» saying that it was «never really successful at retail» also adding that at the time the Gucci Group was making a slight loss given a slowdown in demand in the U.S. market and the expense of bringing Saint Laurent back to profitability about which De Sole declared: «The process of re-launching Yves Saint Laurent has caused us to expect to sustain a greater loss than we previously forecast». The press at the time described Maier as a method fanatic (he had worked for nine years at Hermès, after all) who had started out producing knitwear and jackets initially and had offered the first complete 60-piece collection not with a show but with a presentation. «It isn't like normal ready-to-wear. I had the concept of designing clothes like accessories. Everyone has their own personality, and will pick things out to wear in their own way», Maier told Vogue at the time.

Maier's meticulous and slow work paid off, however. After a SS05 collection that was well-reviewed by critics but presented with a show that was a bit too confusing and conceptual, which convinced poorly by still being a hyper-limited offering of clothes that led the press to wonder if it was a runway show or a bag presentation. Things changed in February 2005, when Maier presented the first full collection, which, if not fully convincing on the menswear level, had the merit of bringing to the runway styles related to those we know today: sweaters combined with leather skirts, other skirts made of glittering rhinestones combined with lamé suede boots, beige leather trench coats, impalpable silk blouses mixed with heavy velvets. As early as a few months later, in June, Tim Blanks wrote in Vogue that thanks to a series of sales and private presentations (he called them «trunk shows») the brand had experienced a huge increase in sales, with opulent products such as crocodile suitcases with vegetable dyes, kidskin shoes, bags embroidered with silver threads and lizard leather soles hidden inside slippers but also jeans with hems decorated by woven leather. As early as September 2005, the brand's upward trajectory was becoming increasingly rapid and vertical - a dilemma of sorts arose at this point, whereby the brand was registering sales due to its collector audience and the shows it organized, while successful, were unable to communicate the work of Maier whose intricately constructed pieces with subtle but incredibly sophisticated details could be appreciated when worn, instead appearing anonymous on the runway.

We could call Maier a forerunner of normcore. «I love a beautifully made product but I hate things looking new. They're missing personality» he told Vogue after the presentation of the FW06 menswear collection. We don't have data about menswear sales, although it was definitely accessories that were driving sales - it must be said, however, that, individual pieces aside, the menswear collections of that era look quite outdated and even too basic today. Things began to turn around in February 2006 with a show for whose review Sarah Mower of Vogue coined the very successful term "stealth wealth" to coincide with Maier's growing confidence with runway collections. FW06 was a collection with «no embellishments, no furs, no embroidery» all about sheer fabric and introducing the brand's jewelry line for the first time. At the time Maier also experimented with distressing, using different washes of fabrics to create a crumpled, pre-worn effect immediately associated with the brand. In the same year the School of Leather Goods in Vicenza was opened at the behest of Maier himself From here on things seemed to change: the papery effect on fabrics began to appeal, menswear kept the very strict silhouette but put the obsession with suits to one side (the FW07 menswear collection is a masterpiece of crazy grails, including an entirely woven leather jacket) and replaced it with workwear, military inspirations and a new love for Madras cotton - bags meanwhile flew higher and higher with the most expensive piece touching $75. 000.

Journalists at the time loved the idea of effortlessness that Maier was promoting; an androgynous look from the FW08 show marked for many a new high point in his production now devoted to functionalist, hyper-minimal design. If, however, womanswear continued at a very high cruising speed with successful collections between 2008 and 2009, almost one more beautiful than the other; menswear remained fossilized on an idea of formalwear that even Maier could not vary convincingly. A few flickers of colorful and innovatively structured coats or leather pants appeared in the FW11 menswear becoming more experimental with the SS12 collection presented in June 2011. Starting that year however the immaculate cleanliness of the women's collections began to open up to now vibrant now chaotic embellishments and prints in the main collections to become more minimal in the Resort and Pre-Fall collections. Between 2012 and 2013, menswear also seemed to freshen up, with more fluid, modern lines and less set layering - simpler, more original pieces appeared for men, with knit and suede shirts, workwear suits, essential outerwear bordering on the abstract. Reading Maier's old statements, his imagination revolved around everyday clothing and making women feel strong and confident in their looks - «make a woman feel good» was, with appropriate variations, almost a mantra.

As we approached the mid-2010s, and especially with FW14 womanswear, we began to see those styles that would accompany Blazy's collections years later. In particular, the look from that collection that combined a gray sweater with a lime green skirt and a bag similar to today's Cassette looks like a direct reference to some of the looks seen in the last years. Menswear also began to evolve and lighten up, adopting more modern lines and a new concept of timelessness tied less to suits and ties and more to vintage inspirations appropriately refreshed through colors and materials. In 2015 the textures were more interesting, the colors more experimental, the products more desirable. In 2016 the brand's 50th anniversary was celebrated. On that occasion Gigi Hadid and Lauren Hutton closed the SS17 show together in which Bella Hadid also walked the runway. But the Maier era was coming to an end. By and large, the last shows of his era took place in American locations, the American Stock Exchange and Bronx Community College, marked by a decorativism quite surprising for those years. Maier's last runway show, FW18, contradicted the words of the designer himself who, a few years earlier, had said that «to be a Bottega customer you have to like something quiet». Yet after the designer's farewell that would come in June 2018, Il Sole 24 Ore noted: «In the first quarter of 2018, compared to the French group's "star" brands, namely Gucci and Saint Laurent, which had grown 37.9 and 12 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, Bottega Veneta had confirmed its difficult phase, in terms of revenues, which had marked a -6.8 percent. […] In 2017 the brand had sales of 1.176 billion, a figure almost unchanged from 1.173 a year earlier. While Gucci and Saint Laurent were in steady and important growth». 

Why did Maier leave? Il Sole 24 Ore again states that his very long tenure of 17 years was, dropped into fashion times, equivalent to a geological era - and if it was precisely in those crucial years that Virgil Abloh ascended the throne of Louis Vuitton, Alessandro Michele that of Gucci, Demna that of Balenciaga, and new phenomena such as Jacquemus, The Row, Wales Bonner, Bode, and Thom Browne captured the attention of new generations of customers. In July 2018 Daniel Lee's name was announced, in December of that year the first lookbook of the "new" Bottega was unveiled, and in February 2019 a long line of models sheathed in black leather paraded in the shadow of Milan's Arco della Pace. The rest is history.