Matthieu Blazy called last season’s collection the end of his Italian trilogy. Something new was in store for spring 2024, and the first clue came as part of the show invite. Inside a brown cardboard box was a compass on a leather strap, with a world map on the front under the needles. We went on a trip.
Although the first model wore an old-fashioned one-piece swimsuit and carried a large intrecciato leather ‘straw’ bag, this was not a destination collection as fashion knows it. We weren’t by the sea in some Italian seaside resort. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Blazy said it this way backstage: “The idea was to merge worlds. We literally took inspiration from all over the world: South America, Southeast Asia, Russia, Brittany, Sicily… we tried to mix them to create some kind of new culture.’
It’s a generous, expansive instinct on Blazy’s part, especially considering the many Milanese brands currently busy looking inward, renewing their own codes and even reviving specific collections from the pre-internet days before 2000. Bottega Veneta does not have the manufacturing history of some of its Italian colleagues. If that gives Blazy a certain kind of freedom, he’s made the most of it, running away from the codes he established during his own short tenure here, through his faded jeans, tank tops and flannel shirts, all actually made of leather, to be sidelined. in favor of more adventurous pieces.
Like the leather wrap poncho on top of a leather trench coat. Like a rugged salt-and-pepper coat. Like the crocheted raffia dresses with the gigantic pompom decorations. At least, that’s what I assume they’re all made of. This was an example where you really wanted a run-of-show with the textile information of the garments and the techniques used to make them, like a map legend.
Blazy got philosophical and said, “It’s also about what you can become after this journey; everything you get from a trip transforms you.” With international calls to end fossil fuel extraction and use, including a march in New York City last weekend that drew more than 50,000 protesters, global air travel will only become more fraught in the future, and yet we are all forced to go somewhere, as the soundtrack said. After all, the Earth is so rich in natural wonders. Some of them were reflected in the designs, such as a yellow sundress with eyelets and delicate straps strung with natural pearls; others he recreated, such as the sandals whose strappy leather was made to resemble banana leaves.
Blazy believes in the transportive possibilities of fashion. Wear those ‘banana leaf’ sandals or carry the bag and ‘you’ll escape.’ But you can extract the backstory, and this was still an extraordinary collection, more couture than ready-to-wear when it comes to the craftsmanship that went into the individual pieces, from the draped neckline top to the bias-cut skirt. from strips of leather in different colors to the thick woven jacquard coat that almost looks like fur. “Where people call crafts dusty, I think the opposite is true,” says Blazy. “It’s a world of possibilities.” Agreed.
