At a studio visit several days before her third Bottega Veneta show, Louise Trotter, a British expat in Milan, laid out her thinking. “The collection,” she said, “is an observation of how we move between seasons…I’m from the Northern Hemisphere, so it’s quite unusual for me to be in a city where you really feel the four seasons, and they’re very integral to the way we live here. I wanted to express that sort of in-between—between what we see and perceive to be protection, which is winter, and then de-robing as we go into spring, summer.”
Though she may be an outsider in Italy, Trotter is finding her way nicely at the brand. She isn’t really a designer motivated by backstory; it’s the materials and the effects she can get out of them that turn her on. During her first two seasons here, the riches at her fingertips and the high level of artisanship available to her tended to weigh her clothes down, the women’s in particular. This time around, she let the light in.
Following the parameters she set up in that preview, the show opened with outerwear. Coats had padded, slightly exaggerated shoulders and some of the hems were knotted up, “as if she was going to wade into the water.” That’s an indulgence that most women would think twice about at Bottega Veneta prices, but Trotter’s insistence on the everydayness of her precious garments is appealing. Meanwhile, baby intrecciato leather scarves that she wrapped around waists showed off the atelier’s know-how.
Vibrant pastels briefly entered the picture in the middle portion of the show: A lilac top worn over a boardroom blue-and-white-striped button-down and butter yellow chinos snapped the audience to attention, ditto the flower-print draped fringe top and skirt set that swished this way and that as it came down the runway—spring had sprung. Next came summer and a whole raft of looks in patchworks of white handmade lace, chunky openwork crochet, and large-scale intrecciato. A vibrant red cotton dress was ruched at the midsection and knotted on the side over a pleated full skirt in the same electric shade. LBDs were swagged with crisscrossing skeins of silk fringe.
Trotter’s Bottega Veneta, like her predecessor’s, caters to an arty crowd that puts a high premium on craft and creativity, all the way down to the earrings, which looked sculpted from clay or were woven from leather and were often worn mismatched. Still, a plain black one-shoulder long dress with no embellishments was a welcome counterpoint. A little more of that kind of thing, and Trotter will get the balance just right.
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