Bringing a fresh perspective to a brand who, until very recently, was blazing a style trail under the moniker of ‘New Bottega’, Belgian designer Mattheiu Blazy had quite the debut show to conquer.

Effectively giving us the New, New Bottega, for FW22 Blazy worked backwards, and found himself right at the beginning of the label’s history as a “pragmatic” leather goods maker. “Because it specialises in bags it is about movement, of going somewhere; there is fundamentally an idea of craft in motion,” Blazy remarked in the collection’s show notes. “It is style over fashion in its timelessness. That is part of its quiet power.” 

Transience then seemed to define the season: a mix of lavish, sequinned kiwi-gowns and understated wardrobe pairings. Bags and intreccio boots were still woven, coats still comprised of luxe leathers, but a seemingly everyday pair of jeans is not so every-day at all, and is instead denim trompe l’eoil printed onto soft, nubuck leather. Tailoring were loose and inviting, big shoulders don’t impose but settled into the body, bringing with them streamlined overcoats and seamless gowns.

Colour crept in through bold, furry heels, loom-band knits and haystack skirts revealing a world of pointy ephemera lurking below their suave exteriors. Movement is everything for Bottega’s go-getting clientele, they have places to go, people to see, jumbo-fur stoles to wear and mushroom prints to bring to life.