Bottega Veneta Mounts a Buzzy Fashion Show in Detroit—But Why?
The Italian luxury brand, helmed by creative director Daniel Lee, debarked to Michigan of all places to show its spring collection
Overheard on a plane from New York to Detroit this Thursday: “Are you going to the Bottega Veneta show?” asked one black-clad editor. “No, I just really like cars,” wisecracked a similarly somber-looking retailer. It seemed unlikely that any impetus other than Bottega’s impending event would lead hundreds of fashion-industry folks—some of whom the Italian luxury fashion brand flew in by chartered jet—to congregate in Motor City. Although it’s not a typical stop on the fashion-week circuit, Detroit was once called the “Paris of the Midwest,” a name that dates back to a 1705 letter that Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French trader and colonist, sent his boss, heralding the city’s Parisian potential. (Monsieur Cadillac’s suit of arms, which was not wholly authentic, was eventually loosely translated into the Cadillac automobile logo.)
The excitement around the Bottega Veneta show in Detroit this week was a testament to the heat generated by the brand’s British designer Daniel Lee, the elfin Céline alum who’s turned the once-quiet Italian label into a star for luxury conglomerate Kering. A lover of techno and cars, Mr. Lee said he was “obsessed” with Detroit since he first visited six years ago, and eager to highlight it. Born almost 20 years after Bottega Veneta was founded in 1966, Mr. Lee has made it a shiny destination for conceptual ready-to-wear and Instagrammy accessories, especially ones in the new house shade of glaring green— “parakeet,” as it’s called.
That shade of green is popping up amid the brick facades and industrial buildings of Detroit, as the brand stages one of its “salon” concepts in the city. Part traditional fashion show and part cultural happening, previous salons have appeared in Berlin and London over the past year. Arriving downtown on Thursday, I spotted a woman with long blonde hair carrying a parakeet-colored shopping bag printed with “Bottega Veneta” and almost as large as she was. In Corktown—named for its 19th-century County Cork potato famine refugees—the label installed a three-month pop-up called “the Firehouse,” which will sell its wares alongside art, records and books in partnership with Detroit cultural curators until January 2022. Accordingly, the treasures range from vintage books by the late Detroit poet laureate Naomi Long Madgett to $2,100 Bottega Veneta roller skates, in parakeet of course.
At the show itself, which unfolded at the Michigan Theatre, a crumbling 1926 wonder, parakeet popped up on models wearing short party dresses, shimmering separates and slightly ugly yet covetable high-heeled sandals. In the front row, a paler shade of parakeet appeared on the feather-accented shoes and bag of Lil’ Kim, who along with Mary J. Blige, Kehlani and Burna Boy, was among the many musical attendees. Detroit techno legends Moodymann and Carl Craig contributed music to the show experience.
In an ebullient interview after the show, Mr. Lee said he was eager to make a collection that reflected the city’s history of innovation. So metal threads, a nod to automotive engineering, were woven through some pieces. Elements in rubber—beads, flat sequins and yarns—could recall tires or records in their fabrication. “Everything at Bottega is actually an engineering feat,” said Mr. Lee.
The British designer’s fascination with the U.S., also visible in looks like a Marilyn Monroe-ish dress and some stiff workwear pieces, emerged as a theme. “I really wanted to make an American monument,” said Mr. Lee. He continued, “I was really excited by the idea of ‘what is America?’—workwear, denim, sportswear.”
While Mr. Lee’s intentions appear to be genuinely creative, for brands like Bottega Veneta, the business motivation to engage the American market has never been stronger. In August, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech calling for greater wealth redistribution and curbing of excessive incomes in his country. That rattled fashion conglomerates that have for several years depended on China as a strong luxury market, with a subsequent selloff over a period of two days of 60 billion euros, or $70.26 billion, from the market value of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Richemont and Kering—the owner of Bottega Veneta. With this frost forming in China, the U.S. market has become more important than ever to luxury brands.
And there’s no doubt about it, this stuff sells. At the Corktown pop-up, another one of those oversized green shopping bags sat waiting for a client, stuffed with shoeboxes and stapled with a receipt for $5,800. Those shopping sprees add up, globally: In the third quarter of 2021, Bottega Veneta’s revenue was €363.4 million in the third quarter, up 8.9% compared to the same period last year. “Business has been really strong since Daniel Lee came on board,” confirmed Sam Lobban, the New York-based SVP of designer and new concepts at Nordstrom, which sells the brand at its stores.
Can everyday people, especially in a city as complex as Detroit, view such a successful outsider brand with goodwill? “We have a huge group of people here that love us, I think in a really genuine way,” enthused Mr. Lee after the show. And indeed, the people I spoke to seemed positive about the experience. Chris Schanck, a local furniture designer who created pieces for the pop-up, said he was impressed that Daniel “took the time to look around,” and that he brought “creatives, not suits.” A waiter at one of the lunches organized for the salon, at the Shinola Hotel, said he was excited that “Milan’s biggest fashion house” had chosen to show in Detroit.
Which is not to say that the joy was unmitigated. A woman wearing head-to-toe parakeet green tried on a pair of high sandals at the pop-up on parakeet-green carpeting. “They’re beautiful,” she said. “But they hurt like hell.”