Concluding his trilogy of ‘Italy’ shows, creative director Matthieu Blazy continues to celebrate and link the country’s past, present and future through craftsmanship in motion.
In Bottega Veneta‘s FW23 collection, techniques, embellishments, characters and creatures from the past travel through time and space to speak of the present and the future. A cacophony of animate and inanimate influences that becomes a polyphony.
Everyone occupies a role and a place, and is part of the process: from the ancient bronze corridors of Ancient Rome to the present day, via the futurist Boccioni with his work ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space’.
The cast’s odyssey continues, yet they are now archetypes of characters in transformation, journeying from the ordinary to the extraordinary. They question what it means to be stylish and when it begins. From the morning ritual of the sheer camisole combined with sleep socks (the dress belies the complexity of its materials while the socks are matched by braided leather shoes) to the sartorially obsessed industry moguls clad in patterned nightdresses or pyjamas of apparent grey flannel (everything is made of suede).
The idea of “changing clothes” is also explored, starting with its everyday meaning, through the early designs, to more fantastical proposals later, and where a new mythology takes shape. The fashion show is a place where there is a joyful, emotional and personal pleasure in being able to dress up; to gain confidence in being what you want to be through the clothes.
Craftsmanship is reconfigured through innovation by recovering, collecting, reinterpreting and reconstructing historical silhouettes. The characters of Choris and Flora from Botticelli‘s ‘Primavera’ (1482) are conceived according to modern canons. The complicated silk embroideries are also recreated and reinterpreted, presenting a new twist in their metamorphosis.
The collection and the fashion show have been conceived as the iconic technique of Surrealism Exquisite Cadaver, with multiple possibilities. Chimerical creatures emerge and transform through the cut and craftsmanship of the garments, composing different codes of volume and techniques thanks to the thick yarn jacquard or the Intreccio turned into a new type of leather, in the form of a cascade of feathers and scales present in new elaborations of leather garments and accessories. The supple Murano glass is applied to the translucent handle of the Sardine bags worn by these new creatures.
It is undoubtedly the end of a part of Bottega Veneta that begins a new story, a new mythology.
“I was excited by the idea of the parade in Italy. A procession, an unusual carnival, a crowd of people from everywhere and everywhere who somehow fit together and walk in the same direction. I wanted to be inspired by what makes people come together in a non-hierarchical place where everyone is invited,” says Blazy.
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