A history of Bottega Veneta bags The visual language of the best Bottega Veneta handbags – and of the label as a whole – is mainly shaped by what goes unsaid. That is, there’s a less-is-more approach, and you won’t find a brand logo on a single item. Instead, you’ll see an identifiable signature, the intrecciato woven leather treatment, which, since we’re on the subject of languages, translates to intertwined in Italian.
Furthermore, Bottega Veneta means Venetian shop , which brings us right to the beginning...
The best Bottega bags to shop now Bottega Veneta was founded in 1966 in Vicenza, Italy, by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro. The basket-weave technique so famous today was really just a workaround to a technical problem: At the start, the leather-goods company didn’t have sewing machines capable of accommodating thicker swathes of leather, so thin leather was used – but in order to make Bottega bags more durable, the leather was woven at the diagonal. It didn’t take long for the label to go global.
By the 1970s, a Bottega Veneta shop had opened up in Manhattan, luring the likes of Andy Warhol, who, in a lesser-known photo, can be seen kissing a Bottega loafer. (In 1985, the Pop artist would also make a short film for the Italian label.) It was also embraced in popular culture: Lauren Hutton memorably carried a brown Bottega clutch in 1980’s American Gigolo – a moment that the label paid homage to in 2018 by reviving the bag and bringing Hutton ou.