‘Craft is not a trend. Neither is it something that has to be improved. It is a timeless technology. The irregularities of handwork make each Bottega Veneta design unique. This for me is true luxury,’ says Matthieu Blazy, current creative director of the Veneto-founded Italian house, whose celebrated collections have honed in on its rich tradition of leatherwork, albeit in imaginative new ways. Most memorably, a pair of trompe l’oeil jeans from his debut A/W 2022 collection, which appeared to be made from classic blue denim but were actually made from leather (an array of other quotidian garments, from a flannel shirt to knitted woollen socks, have been reimagined in leather in subsequent collections).
A new film by director Massimiliano Bomba, released this week, gives viewers an unprecedented look inside Bottega Veneta’s Veneto atelier where such feats of leather work begin. Titled ‘Craft in Motion’, the serene roaming shots capture the interior and exterior of the 19th-century villa in which the artisanal workshop is housed, as well as the various meticulous production processes taking place inside. This includes the house’s signature intrecciato, a unique woven leather central to Bottega Veneta’s founding in 1966; in the decades since, the technique has served as ‘a blank canvas for experimentation in shape, colour, structure and size,’ say the house.
