Louise Trotter’s debut at Bottega Veneta didn’t just introduce a collection; it set a tone, a manifesto for what the house could become under her watch. In the months leading up to Milan Fashion Week, anticipation was layered with curiosity — could the designer known for quiet precision at Joseph, Lacoste and Carven step into a heritage brand famed for its leather artistry and make it feel both reverent and new? The answer, as the industry quickly agreed, was a resounding yes.
She began with the archive, not as a relic but as a conversation. “I like that the ‘Bottega’ is a workshop,” she wrote in her show notes, framing the house less as a museum and more as a living, breathing craft space. Her chosen language was the Intrecciato weave — not as nostalgia, but as fuel. Two strips, woven together, stronger together. It became the metaphor that pulsed through the entire show, echoing ideas of collaboration, community and connection, the very DNA of the house.
On the runway, nappa leather moved with the grace of fabric, shimmering like water even in boxier cuts. Evening gowns dipped into drop-waist silhouettes, swaying with a quiet confidence. Menswear codes were pressed into womenswear, not to harden femininity, but to sharpen it. A palette of neutrals dominated, broken only by jolts of saturated color in outerwear that reminded the audience Bottega has always had a knack for making restraint dramatic. And then there was the cape — 4,000 painstaking hours of handwoven leather, a piece less about fashion as trend and more about fashion as time.
The accessories carried the same language of transformation. The Lauren stretched, the Knot loosened, the Cabat collapsed elegantly into a clutch. Newcomers like the Squash, the Framed Tote and the Crafty Basket stood shoulder-to-shoulder with classics, proving heritage and novelty aren’t enemies but co-conspirators. Even the soundtrack — Steve McQueen splicing Nina Simone and David Bowie’s separate renditions of “Wild Is the Wind” into a duet — felt like Intrecciato in sound, two strands woven into harmony.
The show drew a constellation of faces — Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Zadie Smith, BTS’ RM, Chelsea’s Lauren James — but the real headline was the clarity of Trotter’s voice. She wasn’t here to play safe or loud; she was here to remind the industry that craftsmanship is collaboration, that luxury is built in process, time and touch. For Bottega Veneta SS26, the message rang clear and true: the future of the house lies in weaving past and present into something stronger.
