Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta is a handbag and fashion brand from Veneto, Italy . It was founded by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro in 1966. It started out as a leather goods brand. Its current products include ready-to-wear, shoes, jewelry, accessories and home furnishings. "Bottega Veneta" means "Veneto workshop" in Italian . Intrecciato leather weaving and logo-free design are the brand's most recognizable design elements.

Brand History

The founders of Bottega Veneta are Italian entrepreneurs Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro . In 1966, they jointly opened a leather goods workshop in Vicenza, Veneto, thus establishing the Bottega Veneta brand, namely the "Veneto Workshop".

In the mid-1970s, Bottega Veneta invented the Intrecciato leather weaving process , which was widely used in Bottega Veneta's handbag design, such as the rounded box clutch launched in 1978. This handbag was modified in 2001 and a small leather knot clasp was added , hence the name "Knot" handbag .

After Bottega Veneta became famous, it began to use "When your own initials are enough" as its brand slogan and insisted on a logo-free design - no brand logo, to reflect the owner's own personality.

By the 1980s, celebrities such as former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Iranian Queen Farah Pahlavi became Bottega Veneta's customers, and American artist Andy Warhol even made a special promotional short film for it.

With the help of celebrities, Bottega Veneta's popularity has been increasing. In the 1990s, Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro retired , and Vittorio & Laura Moltedo took over the company . They set out to change the brand image, abandoning the low-key style and trying to add logo design to the products , but failed to achieve significant results .

Bottega Veneta's business gradually fell into decline until 2001, when Gucci Group (now Kering Group) acquired it for $156 million and invited German designer Tomas Maier to serve as the new creative director of the Bottega Veneta brand.

After Tomas Maier took office, he immediately launched his first handbag, the Cabat handbag . "Cabat" comes from the French word for "basket" (Cabas). This handbag is made of two pieces of leather woven seamlessly , and looks like a shopping bag . There is no brand logo, marking Bottega Veneta's return to its original style .

The following year, Tomas Maier launched the "Art of Collaboration" art collaboration project, inviting well-known photographers and contemporary artists to collaborate on the release of new products each season. So far, participants include British photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones , American photographer Annie Leibovitz , American artist Robert Longo , etc

After entering the 21st century, Bottega Veneta actively expanded its product range, launching women's ready-to-wear, men's ready-to-wear, jewelry, perfume, furniture interiors, etc. In 2006, Bottega Veneta established a training school "La Scuola della Pelletteria" to cultivate the company's next generation of leather craftsmen.

With the rapid growth in the number of stores and sales, Bottega Veneta opened a new workshop in Montebello Vicentino, Veneto, Italy in 2013 , and moved its training school to the first floor of the workshop. In the same year, Bottega Veneta's first Maison store was unveiled on Sant'Andrea Street in Milan . By the end of 2017, the number of Bottega Veneta's directly-operated stores worldwide reached 270.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the brand and the 15th anniversary of Tomas Maier's appointment, Bottega Veneta held a fashion show at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in 2016 , reinterpreting classic handbags in the brand's history, including the Lauren 1980 series. This handbag first appeared in the movie "American Gigolo" (1980) and was designed by Bottega Veneta specifically for American actress Lauren Hutton .

In July 2018, Tomas Maier left Bottega Veneta and was replaced by Daniel Lee as creative director .

·Chronology of major events·