Louise Trotter dedicated her first Bottega Veneta collection to its signature Intrecciato leather weave, whereas the British designer’s sophomore effort was all about hairy styles.
On Saturday night, Trotter sent 80 models hurtling across a lipstick red carpet at breakneck speed, making silken threads, recycled fiberglass, fil coupé, fuzzy knits and hand-tinted shearling bounce, flick and flutter. For aficionados of fabric innovation, this would be their Super Bowl.
“I work with the most incredible artisans, and the pursuit of craft is central to everything that we do,” she told a clutch of reporters after the show.
Indeed, the variety of textures in the show was staggering. One enveloping coat had a bristled surface that resembled thousands of blown-out matchsticks, while a leather trench evoked licorice with its tightly ridged surface.
The entire spectrum of hairiness was on show, from neatly shorn and combed to a high gloss to Chewbacca wild.
Trotter also dedicated a good portion of the show to her sculptural and voluptuous tailoring, the jackets elongated, and with prominent, rounded shoulders and full sleeves. Many were engineered to flare open, revealing short, gored skirts or full, mannish trousers.
While her Kering stablemate Demna has abandoned his claim to oversized silhouettes, delivering shrunken, clinging shapes at Gucci, Trotter continues to pump up the volume at Bottega, sometimes to the point of bulkiness.
She bristled when a reporter suggested her clothes smothered, or even swaddled the models.
“We spent a lot of time and care to have structure and form and curve without the heaviness,” she retorted, insisting many of the clothes were light as a feather. “I was very attentive to that this season.”
Still new to Milan, Trotter described it as a “very brutalist city, but with a sensuality that’s a little hidden.” To be sure, she’s noticed that locals take pride in what they wear, dressing to please others as much as for themselves.
That the show was held in a palazzo a wig’s throw from La Scala was intentional. “It’s fun to dress up,” she said, name-checking Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini as feminine and masculine guiding lights.
The menswear was much improved, hinged on relaxed, but still slender tailoring, plush pea coats, vaguely military sweaters with leather shoulder patches, and a gently padded leather officer’s coat that looked like a million bucks.
No doubt this level of workmanship doesn’t come cheap: Trotter noted that one curly swing coat was composed of more than 2,000 shearling elements.
But one of her styling tricks – also seen at Jil Sander, Ferragamo and Toga in London – doesn’t cost a penny, or involve any hairy surface: Just pop one collar of your white shirt outside your tailored jacket, sweater or coat to look very fall 2026. You’re welcome.
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