what we’re really great at, and working in an artisanal way,”
he says, warming to his subject. “This house is really fantastic
in its ability to turn out technique; real craftsmanship – but
I hate that word,” he interjects. “It’s so overused. It’s a
beautiful word, but every time I hear it, I sigh – I could give
you a whole list: authenticity, luxury, empowerment...”
Although the ready-to-wear business was launched in
2005, truthfully it has never ignited a sense of burning
desirability. “In areas other than leather goods we were like
a start-up, and in some ways it was like making a collection
back at Central Saint Martins.” He did a lot of restructuring;
he kept the all-important artisans but replaced much of the
design team. Daisy, his right hand and CSM classmate,
was among his first hires. She tries on everything, prototype
after prototype over and over again until Lee green-lights
it. He talks about her a lot, and the wider design team, which
he describes as a big family. He loves the community that
fashion creates. “I love the way that it brings people together,
how it connects people from different parts of the world.
You can be rich or poor, talent will always rise to the surface
in this industry. It’s a level playing field.”
He certainly lives in the real world – to the extent that he
accepts that his version of Bottega Veneta won’t chime with
everyone. “Sure, we might lose some customers,” he says.
“But Bottega Veneta is a company built on woven handbags- and, well, we still have those woven handbags. What was
so fantastic [about taking on this role] is that I wasn’t so
scared about losing our ready-to-wear, shoes and jewellery
customers as it was such a small part of the business by
comparison, and that gives you a certain confidence to tear
things up.” It has worked. Wholesale orders of ready-to-wear
have tripled, and it has also introduced the brand to a younger
generation of shoppers.
There is little that Lee reveals about his private life. He
works almost all the time, dividing his weeks between Milan
and Paris. He goes to the gym most mornings. He is fluent
in French and started Italian lessons, but put them on hold
last year because all he could think about was what he had
to do in the office as soon as he got out of class. He doesn’t
have an Instagram account. “No one knew who I was before
this job, which is quite nice. Bottega is about discretion and
ultimate sophistication; it’s elusive, a little bit insider, a little
bit coded, all those things I really like. It’s mysterious and
expensive and if someone sees me with a beer on a Friday
night outside the pub, how does that quantify that kind of
price point?” is how he puts it. “I really enjoyed growing up
in a pre-Instagram era – we just had fun. It will be interesting
to see what will happen next. I do think there will be a return
to privacy. I hope so.”
It’s a position that has brought about a huge amount
of responsibility, which he doesn’t shoulder lightly. “I think
a lot about sustainability; I want to make things that
last forever, I’m not interested in anything less.” He’s
uncompromising in his ethics. “I don’t use fur. I don’t like
it. There are just certain things that I feel you have to be a
human being about; a respectful human being... We won’t
use any models who are under 18 years of age.”
In short, Lee won’t pretend to be anything he isn’t. His
talk is peppered with statements such as, “The truer you are
to your instinct, the better. Trying to cheat yourself out of
following your soul is the worst thing you can do.” There is
zero ego, and he’s under no illusions about the shelf-life of
a designer: “At best, you have a period of relevance. To try
and say something big every season? You can’t do that
forever.” If there is one thing he is wrong about, let’s hope
it’s that. The future of our wardrobes depends on it. n
“My job is to really make Bottega Veneta part of the fashion
conversation, but this is a true heritage house, and that is
something that moves a lot slower and in a very different
way to something that’s ‘fashion’,” he explains. “Trying to
change this house into a fashion brand is a huge task.” Judging
by his few collections, he has made it look relatively easy.
Right off the bat, front row at his autumn/winter 2019 show
in February, women were eyeing up that black quilted leather
coat with brassy link fastener, his Fanta-orange elongated
sweater with knotted add-on scarf, an ivory knit with built-
in gold curb link neckline, mirrored “disco ball” silk jersey
shirtdresses, finely tuned mannish trouser suits and stompy,
lug-soled boots. A man of great precision with an acute eye
for detail, Lee possesses the ability to make the kind of
clothes that are directional but easy to wear; that feel like
they already belong to you the second you slip them on; that,
once you try, you’d sooner swallow the expense – no matter
how great – than have to heart-wrenchingly put them back
on the rail. His are clothes that simply make you look like
a better, more expensive-looking version of you. And that
kind of a pull is a powerful thing.
It’s a big departure from the pretty-enough floral tea
dresses and sensible coats of Maier’s tenure, a fact that isn’t
lost on Lee. Was he nervous about presenting his ideas to
the world? “Of course – who wouldn’t be? It’s absolutely
terrifying!” (Untrained in giving interviews, in a good way,
he is refreshingly to the point.) His very first outing was
Bottega Veneta’s autumn pre-collection presentation, a small
affair in New York, but it was the bigger autumn/winter ’19
collection staged in February in Milan that felt like the real
debut. “The show is incredibly hard on a designer; after the
show I was...” Frazzled? I offer. “Destroyed,” he corrects.
“And then to talk backstage and be a normal human being,
it was brutal. When you’re still making looks as the show
starts, you certainly don’t really want to answer questions
like, ‘How do you feel?’ ‘Well, I feel like shit.’ But you can’t
say that, you have to be ‘profesh’.” People like realness, I say.
“Do they, though?” he asks, anxiously. “I do, I like realness.”
Leather goods, and the house’s signature weave, are still
at the heart of his vision. “I think Bottega really sits at the
top of the chain in terms of quality, alongside Hermès and
what Céline became during Phoebe’s tenure... it’s about the
minutiae. The tiny details are what I get excited about. There
are very few brands left like this.” His bags in particular have
been a smash hit, the front row favourites crafted in framed
pyramid shapes alongside neat clutches in soft, puffy quilted
leather. “Leather goods are the core of Bottega Veneta; that’s“NO ONE KNEW WHO
I WAS BEFORE THIS
JOB, WHICH IS QUITE
NICE. BOTTEGA IS
ABOUT DISCRETION
A N D U LT I M ATE
SOPHISTICATION”
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