FEATHER LEATHER BY BOTTEGA

Louise Trotter’s third collection for Bottega Veneta felt like a release — a deliberate lightening of the house’s most iconic codes. The leather, usually so substantial, was pared down, almost fluid. The intrecciato weave, once tightly braided, opened up into airy crochets and loose-knit bases, giving the collection a new kind of ease. Even the outerwear shed its armor, trading weight for movement.

Staged at Fabbrica Orobia, the show also marked a quiet milestone — the first runway since Romain Spitzer stepped in as CEO. It wasn’t just a new season. It felt like a shift in rhythm — more air, more space, more room for the clothes to breathe.

Trotter said she wanted leathers “as light as I could get them,” and the outerwear delivered. A black trench came with deconstructed sleeves and shoulders that freed the arms. A black peacoat had its collar break into a wrap on one shoulder. Both were familiar coats with the rigidity taken out, which is a narrower ambition than reinventing the coat and a more convincing one.

The show notes framed the season as a proposition “to wear less, but feel more.” The clothes stayed close to that line.

The collection unfolded like a slow release — starting with structure, then letting go. Coats and tailoring gave way to gauzy skirts, openwork knits, and pieces that felt almost undone: a macramé tank over a softly pleated maxi, a lace collar breaking the line of tan leather trousers, a pearl-colored shirt that melted into a scarf at the neck. It wasn’t about shedding form, but about where to let it fall.

And then, the fringe — not just an accent, but the pulse of the show. It draped across shoulders like a second skin, swayed from bubble hems on floral skirts, and trailed from a straw bag nearly to the floor. Even the 3D flowers — black and white, stitched into a layered slip — bounced with movement, like the whole collection was finally breathing easy.

Color didn’t announce itself — it slipped in, late and deliberate. A violet blazer over pink satin, a flash of purple cap, then deeper tones: red, burgundy, worn like they belonged. It wasn’t loud, but it held the eye — like the clothes were finally turning up the volume just a little.

And the hats — they were everywhere, from crochet and cotton buckets to those wide straw ones dragging near the floor. A quiet echo of last season’s beanies, but softer now, more sunlit. They didn’t complete the look — they lingered in it, like a habit you never meant to start but can’t imagine stopping.

That’s where the shift really lands — in the outerwear, where Bottega used to lean into weight as a sign of luxury, now doing the opposite. By opening up the weave, lightening the leather, and letting structure breathe, Trotter isn’t just updating the coat — she’s flipping the idea of what feels substantial. It’s no longer about how much it weighs, but how it moves.

And that same thinking flows into the shirts — the open-weave blouses, the tuxedo fronts with woven bibs — treating intrecciato not as a detail, but as fabric in its own right. It’s not borrowed from the bag anymore. It’s part of the body.