The childlike sense of curiosity that Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy talked about backstage at the Spring 2025 fashion show had its first stirrings in this resort collection, which arrived in stores a few months before it. Here is the intrecciato version of Richard Scarry’s The Greatest Word Book Ever, which created a stir on social media during the brand’s spring promotions. After hearing him nostalgic about 1980s movies MEAT And Vault The mermaid perched on a rock in Milan wearing an embroidered aloha shirt now looks like a clear reference to the Daryl Hannah movie. And there is a top decorated with naive drawings of, among other toys, a chessboard, a hand of cards and a magic 8-ball; it has a “personal touch” feel that doesn’t quite impress many other luxury fashions today. The fish-print scarf dress is a tribute to artist and Blazy collaborator Gaetano Pesce, who died in April.

“There was no big concept,” Blazy said of this preseason collection. “It was more about: How do we put things together, and when it comes to the individual components, does that get your heart pumping?”

Bottega Veneta was a “bright spot” for Kering in the third quarter. Since I’m not an analyst, I think its success is at least partly due to that personal touch. This season, in addition to new versions of the heart-pounding Sardine bag, the bag offering also includes a bag depicting the Venetian gondola and the Rialto bridge and a bum bag made of heavy silk twill scarves. Of the many different shoes, the most fun is a pair of heeled sandals with an apple ornament placed between the toes.

Elaborating on her approach, Blazy said: “I have read many books about elegance and how to style yourself. I also re-watched most of Anthony Bourdain. There are many parallels between the joy of cooking and the joy of putting things together in silhouette. What I really wanted to do this season was pure pragmatic epicureanism. I bought everything I liked. “When the ingredients are good, like in Italy, you don’t have to do much.”

Where only Italian cuisine revolves around a few basic ingredients, this Bottega Veneta collection was diverse. Although there were a few through lines, such as ties for both men and women, originality trumped consistency; color from head to toe; Experimental intrecciato patterns featuring newsprint and extreme silhouettes, from New Look-ish skirts to minis, a first for Blazy. Quote from G. Bruce Boyer’s book: True Style“Elegance is the dialogue between innovation, tradition and individual taste,” he said. If there was one look that summed it all up, it was the man in a shirt and tie, a long knit polo dress, a Gaetano fish scarf over his shoulder, and a Rialto bridge bag in his hand.