The New minimal Luxury of Bottega Veneta Daniel Lee confirms himself as one of the most interesting designers on the scene

Among the impressive and bright theatrical stages created by brands such as Moncler, Gucci and Versace, with extensive deployment of rotating booths, megascreens and installations, the show of Bottega Veneta's FW20 collection was elegant and contained. The brand didn't try to strike with the magnificence of the venue, nor was it more intellectual than a fashion show requires to be. The white catwalk ran in the midst of a series of semi-opaque separators on which was projected the image of a neoclassical lodge populated with statues. Accompanying the models on the catwalk was a sensual string music, haunting and gloomy, which together with the architectural appeal of the dim-lit portico and the subtle animations for which the lightpainted statues moved resembled certain Gothic atmospheres of Thomas Harris's novels and Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire. But in contrast to this dark romance, the entire show was based on a strong presence of technology and its ability to evoke sentiment. It was, however, a technology not ostentatious or eager to impress with futuristic gadgets, but discreet to the point of hiding machinery and projectors, elaborated without excess, with an ethereal effect almost from a magic lantern. 

Daniel Lee, the brand's deservingly celebrated creative director, is one of the spokespersons for that new luxury that has characterized fashion in recent years – one of the key elements of which is the value of the experience. His show was the second most watched of the entire fashion week, with 8.8% share and, soon after, the word "fringe" had an increase of 198% in online searches. And in a fashion week where the fashion shows remained among the traditional, the already seen and the pompous, his show was able to combine, with the typical talent of the British for understatement, aesthetics and entertainment without ever exceeding the mark nor unbalancing itself but carrying out a precise and complex vision – a vision rightly celebrated by the digital archive @newbottega edited by Laura Rossi and also by the market figures with a growth of 9.8% in sales in the fourth quarter of 2019, as reported by the research engine Lyst, whose approach to contemporary luxury, judging by the feedback it has received, will influence the fashion we will see more and more in the coming months.