Scene setting: Across the fashion capitals, brands — with more sustainable processes on their minds — have been rethinking the show invitation and venue concept. At Gucci, Alessandro Michele usurped his usual extravagant hard copy invitation, sending guests a waste-free Whatsapp voice note instead. For his third runway show for Bottega Veneta, Daniel Lee forgoed a hard invitation (last season was a hunk of gold plastic) for an email invitation, featuring a close up animation of tanned legs dancing in S/S 2020’s mosaic encrusted sandals. At the brand’s new show venue — housed inside a huge former ice rink from the twenties — rows of seating were framed with transparent walls of fabric. As the show began these were projected with classical scenes of an Italianate villa, with figurative muscly statues with humorously changed position as the show progressed.
Mood board: Bottega Veneta won the Wallpaper* 2020 Design Award for its A/W 2019 women’s offering and the brand, under Lee’s creative direction, also scooped four awards at the British Fashion Awards last year — the most handed out in one night in its history. For Veneta’s A/W 2020 womenswear, Lee proposed a long and lean silhouette for autumn, drawing on his expertise in knitwear to create fluid ribbed knit dresses, long skirts and tactile shearling coats with long streamer-like or oversized pipe cleaner tassels. For men, silhouettes were boxy, with cropped jackets paired with narrow flaring trousers and cropped knitted V-necks and overcoats with metal clasps. The colour palette was bold and uncompromising, in shades of chartreuse, post box red and black. In nod to last season’s sequin shimmer, parachute dresses and jeans were emblazoned with twinkling square pailettes and fringing swooshed sensually around the body.
Finishing touches: Lee’s take on Veneta’s signature Intrecciato weave has been a phenomenal success — its luxuriously weaved leather The Pouch, is a power player in the accessories market, even though only introduced at the end of 2018. For A/W 2020, Lee created soft knitted clutches, Intrecciato weave clutches with trailing fringes of leather or XL rectangular shoppers resembling an architects portfolio. Sloped heel cowboy boots had a subversive edge. For women, thigh high versions worn with trailing tasseled skirts accentuated Lee’s long silhouette. §
