The Instagram account using social media stats to keep tabs on luxury trends, @databutmakeitfashion, just reported that Bottega Veneta’s popularity surpassed other high fashion brands by 70% last week, and we’re not surprised. What is surprising is that the Italian fashion house has achieved this without any Instagram presence.
Although the decision to delete Bottega’s socials in 2021 came from Daniel Lee, the brand's former creative director who believed that Bottega’s designs didn’t need Instagram's algorithms to blow up, Matthieu Blazy has stuck with the ideology since he stepped in, and it’s paid off.
Whilst plenty of us were sceptical about Bottega’s choice to cut itself off from the platform that most high fashion brands use to share their latest drops and collections, Matthieu Blazy has not only maintained Bottega Veneta’s popularity without IG, but has seen the brand skyrocket. Let’s look at some of the ways that Bottega stays winning without relying on viral posts and algorithms.
Quality assurance and customer satisfaction
Bottega Veneta hasn’t given up a spot in the Lyst Index’s ranking of the top ten hottest brands in the world since Q4 2022 when it launched its lifetime guarantee service, and we’d argue that this is no coincidence. In the midst of an economic downturn, consumers are placing more value on quality goods that are designed to last a lifetime, seeing luxury items as an investment rather than a spontaneous purchase.
Bottega’s lifetime warranty service, called the Certificate of Craft, gives its customers the right to unlimited complimentary repairs and refreshes for their bags with every new purchase. This sets Bottega apart from other high fashion brands, due to its commitment to customer satisfaction and quality assurance; two things that competitors have been letting slip.
Celebrity ambassadors and familiar faces
The most impressive thing about Bottega Veneta’s campaigns - aside from the designs that feature in them - is the fact that they go viral without the brand even posting them on socials. Instead of relying on its own Instagram account to get its latest drops out there, Bottega breaks the internet by working with the celebrities that star in its campaigns, often getting them to post Bottega’s visuals on their socials - when you’re working with the likes of A$AP Rocky, the payoff is huge.
Since Q2 2023, when Bottega Veneta named BTS’ RM as its first-ever brand ambassador, the high fashion house has linked up with a myriad of famous faces to star in its campaigns, including A$AP Rocky, Kendall Jenner, Jacob Elordi, Shu Qi, and plenty more. And every season, Milan sees these celebrities sit side by side by side at Bottega’s shows.
From the Readymade campaign in Q4 2023, starring A$AP and Kendall in paparazzi-style pics, which went immediately viral, to the Portraits of Fatherhood series which dropped in Q2 2024, Bottega Veneta’s campaigns are always aesthetic, creative, and deliver on high fashion.
Campaigns that spotlight craftsmanship
Although Bottega Veneta’s campaigns regularly feature celebrity cameos, the house doesn’t rely on famous faces to carry its new collections and drops. Instead, the campaigns actually tend to lean more minimalist, placing an emphasis on the brand’s high quality materials, fine craftsmanship, and attention to detail.
There’s a reason that, in the midst of a luxury downturn, Bottega Veneta isn’t seeing sales plummet like other brands. In fact, Bottega’s revenue was up in Q2 by +4% compared to Q1. A large part of this is because of its extraordinarily high craftsmanship, which instils a trust in consumers that they’re buying into items really worth the attached price.
Just look at its latest campaign for Spring 2025, and you’ll see how Matthieu Blazy lets the clothes do the talking, relying only on its elevated craftsmanship and refined design. As A$AP Rocky told the BoF at Bottega Veneta’s AW24 show, “I love what Matthieu Blazy is doing as a Creative Director. I think it’s astonishing; his designs are unmatched.”
Runway show invitations worth framing
As well as its campaigns, Bottega Veneta’s shows are also internet breaking, from the moment their invites start going out to the star-studded afterparties that close them. This is in part because, as a creative director, Matthieu Blazy knows Bottega’s marketing doesn’t start when the show begins, because fashion show invites aren’t just a slip of paper people will chuck away. They’re pieces of fashion history, likely to be posted all over social media and documented in archives for decades.
That’s why Matthieu Blazy puts so much thought into designing his show invites around the theme of each collection. For the past couple of seasons, Bottega has gifted its guests invites in the form of bracelets made from the house’s trademark leather. At FW24, the invite was a forest green bracelet, and at SS25 it was a pale pink buckled bracelet, accompanied by bunny-inspired gifts which played on that collection’s theme of childlike joy.
Immersive shows, from the runway to the seating
Bottega Veneta brings this style of immersive worldbuilding into its showspaces, too. At SS25, the house created leather bean bags shaped after an array of different animals, which supposedly coincided with the personalities of the person assigned to sit on them. Jacob Elordi obviously sat on a bunny shaped chair, and A$AP Rocky was assigned a chicken.
In creating these animal-inspired lounge chairs, some of which will be on sale at Design Miami this December, Matthieu Blazy was inspired by the infamous Zanotta Sacco armchair from 1968. The Sacco chair, a piece designed to embrace comfort with no sharp lines or rigidity, matched the vibe of Bottega Veneta’s SS25 collection, which wanted guests to connect with their inner child. Bringing them close to the ground, sitting on chairs featuring animal characteristics, achieved exactly that.
Link ups with the art world
Matthieu Blazy isn’t just inspired by other artists in his designs; he also regularly links up with creatives from across the art world too. For example, you probably remember the painted show space at Bottega Veneta SS23, but did you know it was created in collaboration with designer, artist, and architect Gaetano Pesce. The link up involved Pesce creating a kaleidoscopic resin floor and 400 resin chairs, which were eye-catching and dramatic in a way that perfectly juxtaposed the timeless craftsmanship of the collection.
As well as these kinds of huge physical installations at their shows, Bottega Veneta also links up with creatives on smaller-scale collaborations. For example, Bottega Veneta has regularly collaborated with BUTT Magazine, the bi-annual publication offering an alternative insight into queer culture, most recently on Issue 34. Bottega Veneta also regularly releases its own free zines that fans of the brand can pick up in store, offering a look into its world of vibrant designs and high craftsmanship.
A track record of being tapped into culture
View on TikTok
Despite its lack of online presence, Bottega Veneta manages to stay tapped into culture, keeping up with and identifying online trends that other brands often let slip. For example, at Bottega’s SS25 show the house invited boxer and online legend Iman Khalif, as well as Jooles Lebron (of “vert demure” fame) to both sit on the FROW. Whilst Bottega is one of the few brands not on socials, it’s constantly displaying an innate understanding of online trends and popular figures, inviting these into its world.
Featured image via Bottega Veneta©
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