Venture into Bottega Veneta’s Via Sant’Andrea store during Milan Design Week 2026 and you’ll find a twisting mass of green and black leather cords suspended from the ceiling. Arranged across the store’s windows and swooping around its first-floor water feature like vines above a lake, some are woven into basket-like forms that conceal softly glowing LEDs.
The woven leather forms are suspended from the ceiling and conceal softly glowing LEDs
Called ‘Lightful’, the sculptural, site-specific installation is the work of Korean artist Kwangho Lee, marking his third collaboration with the brand under creative director Louise Trotter.
Lee, whose work draws on traditional weaving, basketry and 'chilbo' (a traditional Korean enamelling craft meaning 'seven jewels'), is known for his experimental material palette, having worked with aluminium, marble, copper, enamel, steel, bundled rice and even garden hoses.
Hand-woven from supple leather fettucce in black and green, the sculptural forms respond intuitively to the architecture of the space
With Bottega Veneta, what began as an invitation to create lamps for the brand’s S/S 2026 runway led to the inclusion of his work in its ‘Weaving the World: The Language of Intrecciato’ exhibition in Seoul (June 2025). Now, through this installation in Milan, the collaboration shifts into a spatial context, continuing Lee’s ongoing exploration of materiality, weaving and illumination.
The collaboration is Lee's third with the brand under creative director Louise Trotter
Created in close collaboration with artisans at the house’s Montebello Vicentino atelier, Lee’s signature forms become light sculptures hand-woven from Bottega Veneta fettucce leather in bespoke green, selected by Trotter. 'When I got this material in my studio in Seoul, I was really surprised because it’s very detailed and well made,' Lee told Wallpaper*. 'It’s very soft, so it’s better for making specific shapes.'
Installed in situ, the composition was developed over several days, with Lee working freely in dialogue with the store’s interior
The pieces sit somewhere between control and improvisation, extending the brand’s traditional woven language into a more irregular, experimental form. Made in situ, Lee created the composition in reaction to the space. ‘When I came here two days ago and started working in the space, I started very freely, communicating with this new space,’ he explains. ‘It’s quite intuitive, just like playing.’
Developed with artisans at Bottega Veneta’s Montebello Vicentino atelier, the project reflects a shared language of making grounded in weaving
Displayed alongside the lamps are Lee’s ‘Ghost in the Shell’ chairs, made by wrapping a frame in knotted sponge pipes and nylon rope. Coated in multiple layers of polyurethane, the chairs take on a chrome-like finish that belies their soft, improvised construction.
For Lee, the project serves as both inspiration and reassurance that he is on the right path. ‘When I saw the artisans working, I received great inspiration from them,’ he recalls. ‘I realised that the way they work is actually pretty similar to my way, so I got conviction in what I was doing.’
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