Matthieu Blazy’s Creative Alchemy at Bottega Veneta

Jan 19, 2024

Matthieu Blazy, creative director of Bottega Veneta, discusses his creative processes, collaboration, and craftsmanship. He explains how he injects personal touches into sophisticated fashion and creates everyday wear with a luxurious twist. Blazy explores the power of storytelling in fashion and pushing boundaries with his team. He emphasizes the importance of craftsmanship over technology, while still recognizing its value.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Mathia Blazie on Creative Processes at Bottega Veneta

01:53 • 3min

Craftsmanship and Storytelling in Fashion

04:48 • 7min

Exploring Boring Clothes, Craftsmanship, and the Power of Fashion at Bottega Veneta

11:35 • 5min

Pushing Boundaries and Challenging the Team

16:28 • 3min

Matthieu Blazy has been a quiet but powerful force in the fashion industry for years, having worked under powerhouse designers like Raf Simons and Phoebe Philo. But in 2021, he earned that status on his own when he was named the creative director of Bottega Veneta. Since then, he’s developed a reputation for pushing creative boundaries; BoF editors named his carnivalesque Autumn/Winter 2023 collection, which featured tank tops and jeans made of leather, as their favourite show of the season.

“I was very interested in this idea of boring clothes. How can we push it so it really becomes something precious and luxurious?” Blazy says.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Blazy sits down with BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks at BoF VOICES 2023, where he opened up about his creative processes and work at Bottega Veneta.

Key insights:

For Blazy, collaboration and a close connection with his teams are paramount for creativity. Before taking the creative helm of Bottega Veneta, Blazy spent four years at Maison Martin Margiela. “The way I work with the team is quite emotional. … When I arrived at Margiela I took my office out of the studio and I put it inside the atelier. It was nice because it was not just me thinking on my own. We were actually making it together,” he shares.

Whilst Blazy recognises the power of technology in fashion, at Bottega Veneta, he still puts the emphasis on craftsmanship first. “When you make something by hand, it will always have a little mistake, which is not a mistake, which is part of the process. … so when you go to the store, you won't find twice the same product. You have the idea of a theory, of course, but it's never the same. One artisan cannot finish the work of another artisan.”

As a global brand, Blazy hopes customers around the world will be able to see themselves in Bottega Veneta under his creative direction. “Fundamentally I want [global customers] to also find something where they also recognize themselves in the story that is not just Italian.”

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