Navigating until then mainly behind the scenes, Matthieu Blazy – the 35-year-old Belgian did an internship at Balenciaga, before sharpening his weapons then at Raf Simons, Maison Margiela Artisanal, Celine and Calvin Klein – finally finds himself in the spotlight. by becoming, in November 2021, the new creative director of Bottega Venetafollowing the sudden departure of Daniel Lee.

The Fall/Winter 2022 season marks Matthieu Blazy’s first steps on the catwalk, bringing the brand back to Milan, after three traveling shows initiated by Daniel Lee in London, Berlin and Detroit.

For this highly anticipated debut, Blazy sees two options open to him: a clean break with the past or continuing what Lee has accomplished in recent years at the helm of a brand as beloved and mythologized as Bottega Veneta. For Blazy, the second option is the best choice, while bringing the brand back to basics. “Bottega Veneta is essentially pragmatic because it is a leather goods company“said the new creative director. “Because it specializes in bags, it’s about movement, about going somewhere; there is essentially an idea of ​​a moving machine. It is style rather than fashion in its timelessness. This is part of his quiet power.”

Throughout the collection, the pieces all express a sense of movement. Everything feels effortlessly carried, floating easily on the trail.

It started not only with Bottega Veneta’s signature intrecciato, the leather weave that made the house’s name, in the form of thigh-high boots, bags and belts, but also with a white shirt and jeans. The fact that the latter is simply made from denim-like leather, and therefore not so basic at all, set the tone.

Then there is a whole series of leather pieces, true doctrine of the kering group brand, often mixed with chunky sweaters while outerwear also multiplies on the track with generously proportioned double-breasted coats and trench coats in leather with demonstrative closures.

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