Apartment living

Bottega Veneta’s creative director Tomas Maier was feeling house-proud for the label’s A/W 2018 catwalk show. In celebration of the Italian brand’s newly opened apartment-inspired boutique on New York’s Madison Avenue, its menswear and womenswear offerings were staged at the American Stock Exchange – a fashion show first.

Maier has long held a fascination with architecture, and his rectangular catwalk was mapped out like the floor of a Manhattan residence, featuring a dining room, study, bar and living room. The brutalist space was conceived by renowned scenic designer Scott Pask and populated with an array of eclectic furniture: from 1950s and ’60s Gio Ponti chairs reupholstered in pink velvet and chenille, to John Chamberlain’s ACEDIDDLEY sculpture (courtesy of Gagosian Gallery), Louis XVI dining chairs and pieces from Bottega Veneta’s own furniture collection.

‘I was thinking about the way of life in the city, which goes from one extreme to another,’ says Maier of the space, which celebrated both contemporary American sculpture, ostentatious materials like marble and brass, and avant-garde Italian design. Talk about a room with a view.