Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta was established in 1966 in Vicenza by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro, a Veneto town with a long history of leatherwork. The proposition was simple. The founders made artisanal leather goods at a moment when the available sewing machines were not strong enough to fuse heavier hides, so they wove thin strips of supple leather into a flexible textile they called Intrecciato.

From the beginning, Bottega adopted a “When your own initials are enough” slogan, which means that instead of a logo, the brand signs its pieces by how they are made. The descriptor stuck, and the house became known for discreet elegance, a label reinforced when a 1978 two-page ad for Bottega Veneta, created by Andy Warhol and published in the magazine Interview, introduced the brand’s tagline “When your own initials are enough”.

Menswear arrived later than the leather goods that defined the house. During the 1990s, Bottega Veneta launched its first ready-to-wear collection. From 1995 to 2001 the head designer of Bottega Veneta was Edward Buchanan. He designed the first ready-to-wear collection and the first show was held in Milan in 1998. The first show of the women’s ready-to-wear line took place in February 2005 and the first men’s line in June 2006, under Tomas Maier, whose vocabulary ran to long coats, soft tailoring, sandy neutrals, hand-finished cottons, and suede with a fluid hand.

The clothes sat alongside the work of Phoebe Philo at Céline and Jil Sander as part of a broader Italian and European minimalist current that traded logos for fabric and cut. The recognition followed. In 2019, Bottega Veneta won four awards during the British Fashion Awards.

Ownership and creative direction shifted several times. The acquisition of the brand was spearheaded by Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole, who were leading the then-Gucci Group. De Sole at the time revealed that Bottega Veneta had been at the top of the list of his acquisition targets, and with Ford, realized the brand’s strong heritage based on high-quality leather accessories and shoes and Italian craftsmanship had huge potential.

In 2018, after 17 years, Maier left Bottega Veneta. Under his tenure, revenues went from 48 million euros to almost 1.2 billion euros in 2017, but the brand had struggled to keep up with rapid changes in the consumer landscape, as demand waned in its key market, Asia, and it failed to tap into a Millennial audience. Daniel Lee followed from 2018 to 2021, then Matthieu Blazy took the creative role and during his tenure.

Blazy heated up Bottega Veneta and his inventive designs and fabrics research helped fuel the brand’s business and expand it in key markets. His successful trajectory led him to nab the creative director job at Chanel, starting in 2025 and succeeding Virginie Viard.

Louise Trotter was appointed to lead Bottega Veneta, leaving her role as creative director of Carven on Jan. 24, 2025. Today, owned by Kering and posting 2024 revenue of 1.7 billion euros, the house dresses an adult clientele drawn to Blazy-era trompe-l’œil leather denim, woven knitwear, and tailoring, sitting in the same competitive set as Loewe, The Row, and Hermès rather than the logo-driven end of the market.