How does a house built on leather dress for summer?
At Bottega Veneta, Louise Trotter’s answer is to open the weave. For Summer 2027, the house’s defining intrecciato expands, loosens and begins to let air through. Around it come crochet, lace, fringe and openwork construction, translating Bottega’s obsession with material and handwork into clothes made for warmer months.
The collection begins covered up. Coats arrive with padded shoulders and hems knotted upwards, an idea Trotter compared to preparing to wade into water. Small intrecciato leather scarves wrap around the waist. There is still the density associated with the house: leather, layering, protection.
Then the clothes begin to shed it.
Lilac and butter yellow appear alongside blue-and-white shirting and florals. By the time the collection reaches its most summery point, white lace and chunky crochet have replaced much of the earlier coverage. Intrecciato grows dramatically in scale, creating bags and garments whose open construction makes leather appear almost weightless.
This is the mark of Trotter’s continuing evolution. Her first collections at Bottega demonstrated what could be done with the house’s extraordinary access to materials and craft, sometimes through substantial, complex clothes. Here, the technique remains, while the density changes.
Leather trousers and jackets sit beside gauzy pleated skirts. Fringe moves away from the body as models walk. A tangerine leather midi dress makes colour part of the shift, while a red cotton dress is gathered and knotted over a pleated skirt. Even familiar materials seem increasingly interested in movement.
There is abundance here, perhaps still more than necessary. The simplest pieces occasionally provide the strongest interruption, including a floor-length black one-shouldered dress stripped of visible technique.
Yet Summer 2027 proposes an interesting direction for Bottega Veneta. Trotter does not need to escape the house’s leather heritage when the temperature rises. She can change its density.
Open the weave, and suddenly leather can breathe.
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