Why Matthieu Blazy's debut at Bottega Veneta surprised everyone The collection was perhaps the most discussed of this fashion week

The debut of Matthieu Blazy at the helm of Bottega Veneta in the closing days of Milan Fashion Week was perhaps one of the most anticipated shows of the season: after the hustle and bustle of Daniel Lee's farewell, the curiosity aroused by seeing a young designer appointed by the rich pedigree was skyrocketing. But all this waiting can put a creative director in a difficult position. If Blazy had replicated Daniel Lee's work too closely, he would have passed as an imitator; if instead he had given a sharp turn towards a completely new direction he would have run the risk of alienating numerous customers, ruining the brand's own narrative. And maybe that's why the collection staged last Saturday night was, surprisingly, unsurprising.

For decades, Bottega Veneta has been more dedicated to those who wore its products than to those who looked at them, it was more tactile than visual but above all recognizable only on the basis of signs that only those who knew it could appreciate. An ad from the brand from 1957 proudly stated: «People know a Bottega the minute they see one. So we put our name on the inside only» and for many years the slogan that followed the name of the brand in its many newspaper advertisements was: «When your own initials are enough». All principles that Blazy has not evaded at all – cleaning the palate of the audience from the strong memory of Daniel Lee's aesthetics, straightening out his rounded silhouettes, injecting a vague Margiel-esco vibe into some of the garments and making a clean slate of the recent past (the lack of any green item seemed just an arrow to the old creative director) but also removing from the equation the instagrammability that Lee had put at the center of the visual side of the creative process,  the radicality of that aesthetic. The protagonist is the product, the real thing – it is from the sober reality that Blazy wants to start again. And this is only the beginning of the quiet turn of the brand and those who said they were not very impressed on Saturday night will certainly have to wait for the next collection. Blazy will not disregard.