Designer Louise Trotter‘s debut at Bottega Veneta was not just a collection, but a reaffirmation that fashion can be both grounded and transcendent.
As Vogue Business reports, alongside Rachel Scott of Proenza Schouler, Trotter is one of only two women in this season’s record-breaking reshuffle of design leads across 15 fashion houses. She was headhunted by Kering to succeed Matthieu Blazy following his recruitment to take the big gig at Chanel. Trotter won the Bottega job thanks to a runway record that includes several standout shows for Joseph and Carven. She also served a valiant tour of duty at Lacoste despite the brand’s constricting commitment to its tennis-cum-crocodile codes.
“I see fashion less as an art than as something to bring joy,” Louise Trotter told Vogue earlier this year. And while her debut collection for Bottega Veneta seems to have brought joy to its audience, for the designer, the quest for it began from within.
“I wanted to talk about Bottega Veneta as a living person and the journey that the house had been through,” said the designer following Saturday’s runway show. “There is also a little accent of my own journey, coming into Milan and of how I arrived in this city that I find quite grey and austere and brutal from an architectural visual viewpoint, and slowly, slowly I started to discover the beauty inside — and that was something that I really wanted to express with this show.
As Hypebae reports, she approached the archive with the craft of a historian, stating in the show notes: “I like that the ‘Bottega’ is a workshop.” In her nine months at the house, Trotter fell in love and inspiration with the Intrecciato and used it as fuel rather than nostalgia. “The language of Bottega Veneta is Intrecciato,” she says. “It is two different strips woven together that become stronger – the two things make a stronger whole. Collaboration and connectivity run throughout this house and its history, from its beginnings to what it is now.”
The Spring/Summer 2026 collection, showcased at Milan Fashion Week was attended by a slew of celebrity and fashion A-listers, including Julianne Moore, Vicky Krieps, Uma Thurman, Adolescence‘s Owen Cooper, BTS‘ RM, IN, Chelsea FC’s Lauren James, King Princess, Zadie Smith and more collaborators and friends of the brand.
As for the collection, tailoring was featherlight yet disciplined and at times, cinched. Nappa leather garments rippled like water, even in the boxier silhouettes, while evening gowns and drop-waist skirts swayed with each step. Menswear logic was applied to womenswear without diluting the power of femininity. The colorways were primarily neutral, with pops of color and tone especially in the outerwear. And, true to Bottega Veneta, masterful precision was on full display with a leather cape in particular that took 4,000 hours to hand-weave.
Everything spoke of process, time and touch, and the accessories amplified this ethos: the Lauren stretched boldly, the Knot relaxed its posture, the Cabat dissolved into a clutch. New icons emerged too, including the Squash, the Framed Tote, the Crafty Basket and, of course, a leather Intrecciato newspaper alongside refreshed tote bags.
Even the soundtrack carried symbolism. Steve McQueen re-engineered Nina Simone and David Bowie’s individual renditions of “Wild Is the Wind” into a unified duet, weaving in harmony just like its leather technique… Intrecciato in sound form.
The industry reactions to the collection have been overwhelmingly positive. “It felt like the strongest debut of Milan Fashion Week,” said Laura Ingham, deputy director of Vogue global fashion network. “Louise presented her new vision of Bottega and it was a really great fresh start. We were expecting to see the head-to-toe intrecciato, which was beautiful. Then, there were the liquid silver clogs, which felt very modern. The really precise tailoring, the styling touches, and then the unreal fabrications of the tinsel skirts and tops. The pieces came to life on the runway. They became an organic kind of matter, like a jellyfish. It was all so chic. I can’t wait to buy into it.”
For SS26, Trotter’s message was clear: craftsmanship is collaboration, and the message was heard industry-wide.
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