A 2006 write-up taken from the website of PPR, the company that owns BV.
Posting this because it has some interesting factoids, such as that the strips used to weave the bags are one metre long, and 77 strips from 10 different skins are used for a single bag (I guess it's referring to the Cabat), and that Bottega Veneta means "Venetian atelier".
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Bottega Veneta’s rebirth
Taken over by Gucci Group five years ago, and headed by the talented Creative Director, Tomas Maier, the luxury leather-goods manufacturer has changed its skin. Named in the USA as this year’s most prestigious luxury brand, Bottega Veneta is now one of the key names in PPR’s strategy. Here is the report.
Hemmed in between two freeway slip roads, the improbable industrial zone of Vicenza, a small town in Northern Italy, harbours an unexpected gem: the atelier of the Bottega Veneta brand, the rising star of the PPR group. This house, reputed for its hand-woven leather bags, remains faithful to a long-standing tradition of craftsmanship: the “Intrecciato” technique. The atelier houses some 150 skilled craftsmen who painstakingly weave the fine leather strips more than one metre long. To make a single bag takes 77 strips of ten different skins and two people working for two days. An accurate work of craftsmanship ensuring unrivalled suppleness and strength.
Working at this pace, production is obviously limited: for example, Bottega Veneta manufactures not more than 500 articles per season of the Cabat, which people fight to possess. Customers unhesitatingly lay out 3000 euros to show off the emblematic Cabat bag, even spending as much as 75 000 euros for special orders in precious skins such as ostrich, iguana or crocodile.
Lat year, Bottega Veneta’s sales grew 60.2% to score a turnover of some 160 million euros. And that is not the end of the story: François-Henri-Pinault commented “Our declared aim of reaching 200 million will be widely exceeded,” while admitting his “surprise at how fast that growth had been”. An unexpected gift to the brand, which turns forty this year.
A success story
Founded in 1966 by Vittorio and Laura Moltedo, Bottega Veneta (literally, “Venetian atelier”) began life by taking on subcontracts, particularly for Armani, before coming out under its own colours in the 1970s. Unlike other names in the luxury world, the couple gambled on not having a logo. Its seal appears only very discreetly inside the bags. This was a gamble, but a well-calculated risk: its creed “When your initials are enough” took off like a powder trail in the world of the jet set. It was then that the brand lived its finest hour. That is, before slowly returning to oblivion. In 1998, Bottega Veneta’s founders gave some young British fashion designers the task of restoring the fortunes of the brand, but the introduction of cloth models flaunting ostentatious logos was a flop. It took the arrival of the designer Tomas Maier, formerly at Sonia Rykiel and Hermès, for Bottega Veneta to reconquer its former glory. Its priorities? A return to “no logo”, and espousing once again the policy of maximum quality and limited series. Success was not far round the corner: as early as 2002, three stores were opened, in Paris, London and Milan. Next in 2002 came the launch of the women’s and men’s ready-to-wear fashions in, followed by the opening of a flagship store in New York and the first jewellery collection in 2004, the launch of a furniture collection in 2006 and the opening this year of a second store in Paris, on avenue Montaigne. By the end of March 2006, 86 stores had been opened world-wide.
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Bottega or bust!
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