bottega veneta FW23 show unfolds among futurist boccioni statue & ancient roman bronzes

‘a strange carnival’ – Bottega Veneta 2023 winter collection

On February 25, 2023, during Milan Fashion Week, Bottega Veneta’s creative director Matthieu Blazy closed his ‘Italia’ show trilogy with a final celebration of the country’s past, present and future with craft in motion. Unlike most fashion shows, the focus was not only on the garments, but also on the set design, which brought together bronze masterpieces, from the ancient Roman runners dating back to 1BC, to Boccioni’s Futurist ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space’ (1913), and interwove them with the 2023 winter collection, evidently influenced by allusions to magic and mythology, as well as the ancient world.

The show, which unfolded among the sculptures, is conceived as a parade where techniques, motifs, characters and creatures from the past travel through space and time to speak to the present and the future. ‘I loved the idea of the parade in Italy; a procession, a strange carnival, a crowd of people from anywhere and everywhere, and yet somehow, they all fit and go in the same direction. I wanted to look at what makes people gather together in a place without hierarchy, where everyone is invited.’ shares Matthieu Blazy.

the ancient Roman runners bronzes date back to 1BC | all images courtesy Bottega Veneta

bronze masterpieces floating on a sea of stracciatella

Boccioni’s futuristic bronze, titled ‘Unique Forms of Continuity in Space,’ is a dynamic tribute to the rigorous pace and mechanical power of the modern world. The determined and driven silhouette seems deformed by wind and speed, as if in constant, unstoppable motion, while the undulating metal surfaces serve as a reference to machinery. The three statues -the futuristic Boccioni bronze and the ancient runners- were loaned to the Italian luxury fashion house by museums and were themselves part of the strange parade, positioned on a sea of rugs imitating stracciatella, a chocolate-sprinkled gelato.

Against this seemingly incongruous backdrop, the Bottega Veneta parade emerges as ‘a cacophony of animate and inanimate influences that becomes a polyphony.’ The show features a variety of characters: priests, playboys, sleepwalkers, sirens, and many more. The collection showcased a variety of techniques, from flowing cuts and classic draping, to feathers and 3D wool slipper socks. The show opened with a cream, sheer slip dress that draws from Botticelli’s Chloris and Flora from ‘Primavera’ (c. 1482).

‘The collection and show are treated like a game of Exquisite Corpse, where there is an unfolding of possibilities. Chimerical creatures emerge, transformed through cut and craft, a splicing of codes of volume and technique, shaggy fil coupe jacquards, and the Intreccio take the form of a new kind of skin, becoming cascading scales and feathers,
finding new configurations in clothing and leather goods. Murano glass gains added malleability as a medium, clutched by these new creatures when applied as the translucent handles of Sardine bags. It points to the end of one part of the Bottega Veneta story and the beginning of another, of a new mythology.’ shares Bottega Veneta in the official Winter 23 Collection statement.

the sculptures are positioned on a sea of stracciatella rugs