Few designer debuts have come as highly anticipated as Louise Trotter for Bottega Veneta. But in her first collection for the house, shown in Milan for Spring Summer 2026, Trotter didn’t chase reinvention – instead, she returned to the foundation of the brand: craftsmanship, and intentional simplicity.
Set inside the industrial space of Fabbrica Orobia, the intimate show assembled an intergenerational mix of fashion and cultural icons – Zadie Smith, Michelle Yeoh, Owen Cooper, to name a few – to watch as a new chapter of Bottega unfolded. For Trotter, the starting point was the workshop itself. “I like that the ‘Bottega’ is a workshop,” she said. “It involves the collective effort of craft; with craftsmanship, the people who make it, and the people who wear it, matter.”
At the heart of the collection was Intrecciato, the leather weaving technique that has defined Bottega Veneta since the 1970s. First developed by cofounder Renzo Zengiaro, it’s evolved to become more than a signature, but a sartorial symbol of the House’s values of process, utility, and artistry.
As Trotter herself put it, “The language of Bottega Veneta is Intrecciato. And it is a metaphor. It is two different strips woven together that become stronger – the two things make a stronger whole. Collaboration and connectivity run throughout this house and its history, from its beginnings to what it is now." For Spring Summer 2026, Trotter brought Intrecciato back in its original 9mm and 12mm scales, applying it not just to bags, but throughout the collection – from the geometry of shoulders to the structure of garments. It wasn’t just referenced, it was re-centred; used as both material and metaphor for the way things are made, and the way they last.
Tailoring was also central to the collection. Lightweight summer fabrics gave structure without stiffness, with both women’s and men’s garments produced in traditional Italian tailoring workshops, which preserve the techniques of the Italian masculine tailoring tradition. The result is everything from leather trenches and oversized jackets, to cotton-lined dresses which are built from the inside out. The discipline of menswear informed every silhouette, but the overall mood remained light and wearable.
Trotter’s understanding of proportion was matched by a sensitivity to texture and touch. Tinsel-like fringing adorned jackets, coats, collars, and skirts, while dresses were cut from a sumptuously creamy bouclé. Even the most minimal pieces revealed complexity up close— woven leathers, brushed cottons, finely grained knits.
And it wouldn't be a Bottega show without a few accessories to lust after. Familiar bag styles were revised: the Lauren appeared in new dimensions; the Knot was reimagined with a softer structure; and the Cabat was pared down into a clutch, its signature triangle construction influencing the geometry of the garments themselves. But Trotter also delivered on some new additions, in the form of the Squash, the elongated Framed Tote, and the Crafty Basket. Yes please.
To mark Bottega Veneta’s 60th anniversary (which will occur in 2026), Trotter invited British artist and Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen to create the soundtrack. His response was ’66–’76, a sound collage weaving together Nina Simone and David Bowie’s versions of Wild Is the Wind. Two voices from the brand’s founding decade, brought together in a duet that echoed the concept of Intrecciato—complementary, different, and stronger woven together.
