For Spring 2024, Bottega Veneta transported guests to a fashion-forward jungle. The expansive venue in Milan’s Bovisa district was colored with hand-painted maps, communicating Blazy’s exploratory messaging with leather compass watch invitations.
The collection was undoubtedly wearable, seeing daring attitudes migrate into everyday wardrobes (and then some). Chirping birds and flowing waterfalls enchanted the room with alfresco sensations, ignited by men and women with packed bags ready for travel.
Ever the master of texture, chunky woven knits were some of the most luscious pieces of the collection alongside leather dresses with oversize, contrasting fringe. Textural dresses were made of approachable khakis. Supple-looking striped leathers combined for a visual fantasia of very expensive-looking dresses. Seafoam greens, cantaloupe melon hues, and burgundies provided a complex color palette. Before joining Bottega Veneta as creative director in 2021, Blazy spent time behind the scenes at Margiela Couture, Phoebe Philo’s Céline, and then at Calvin Klein. His collections often represent an aesthetic junction between those worlds, without an overly referential feeling.
Blazy believes in the transportive possibilities of fashion. Wear those “banana leaf” sandals or carry the bag and “you escape.” But you can extract the backstory, and this was still an extraordinary collection, more like couture than ready-to-wear when it comes to the craftsmanship that went into individual pieces, from the cowl neck top and “bias-cut” skirt made from strips of different colored leather to the chunky woven jacquard coat that read almost like fur. “Where people call craft dusty, I think it’s the opposite,” said Blazy. “It’s a world of possibilities.” Agreed.
