CRAFTING the FUTURE

SPEAKING BACKSTAGE just after he wrapped his Spring 2024 show in Milan this past September, Bottega Veneta creative director Matthieu Blazy waxed enthusiastically about craft. His collection was a showcase for the Italian house’s tradition of handwork and tailoring, punctuated by pieces like a crochet dress decorated with raffia pom-poms individually knotted to its surface. The accessories featured leather-crafting techniques such as Bottega Veneta’s signature Intrecciato weave, but with updates like reversible textured strips of leather that mimicked banana leaves on bags and sandals. “Those are very small details, but for us they’re meaningful,” Blazy later explained. “It’s about saying, ‘Where can we push savoir faire? And how do we try to innovate?’ Where people call craft ‘dusty,’ I think it’s the opposite. It’s a world of possibilities.” There’s something magical…