A sense of childhood wonder permeated Matthieu Blazy’s S/S 2025 collection for Bottega Veneta, shown this past September in Milan. ‘I was interested in the power of “wow”,’ he said at the time, presenting the show amid a menagerie of leather beanbag animals, which doubled as seats for the assembled guests. ‘[This collection] encompasses the joy of looking, discovering and dressing,’ he said of the eclectic collection, which featured tasselled leather headpieces, animal motifs and blown-up tailoring, like a child playing dress up. ‘[That] wonder you have as a kid when you try on your parent’s clothes; it’s almost primal.’
A similar mood infuses his latest collection, a Pre-Spring 2025 offering which was revealed by the designer earlier this month to coincide with its arrival in stores. There are oversized leopard-print ties and twisting snake earrings, shoes adorned with three-dimensional flowers and bold flushes of primary colour, while perhaps this year’s most unexpected accessory also features: a 62.5 x 52.5 cm edition of Richard Scarry’s seminal 1985 children’s book ‘Biggest Word Book Ever’, reimagined with a cover crafted from woven ‘intrecciato’ leather. Its appearance in the collection’s lookbook heralds a wider capsule collection inspired by Scarry’s work, arriving in selected stores and online today (25 November 2024).
