‘She was my first’: Matthieu Blazy pays tribute to Kate Moss with new Bottega Veneta fanzine

‘Kate Moss was my first Google search; she’s the first photo to be printed on the family printer,’ says Matthieu Blazy, creative director of Bottega Veneta, whose teenage adoration of the British supermodel provides the basis of a new book from the Italian house.

The book arrives as part of a series of publications ‘capturing the motion and emotions’ of the house’s Summer 2023 collection, which was shown in Milan last September. The first two volumes document the ‘ideation, approach and process’ of Italian designer Gaetano Pesce’s custom set for the show alongside unseen images of the collection; this, the third, serves as a celebration of Moss, who walked in the show. 

Bottega Veneta release Kate Moss ‘fanzine’

‘Collective vision has been at the core of Bottega Veneta since being founded in 1966,’ say the house of the series. ‘These books nod to this collective spirit and the history of Bottega Veneta.’

Described as a ‘fanzine’, the new book collates a number of photographs of the model, its design replicating Blazy’s own teenage scrapbooks. ‘It invites you into the world of Bottega Veneta and to embrace a childlike sense of wonder,’ say the house of its playful design.

‘Whenever I hear a modem, I think of Kate, because I mainly looked for her pictures as a teenager,’ says Blazy, who became the house’s creative director in 2021. ‘It’s a sound I will forever relate to her. She became a personal icon. It was, for me, a very serious teenage activity that became an everyday term at home. If I was doing my “Kate Moss”, it meant I was in the middle of collecting pictures.

‘This hobby became a sort of education,’ he continues. ’This fanzine is a tribute to Kate and the pages of a binder that defined my coming of age. She was my first.’

bottegaveneta.com