Bottega Veneta Weaves a Tale at London’s Chiswick House
PARTYING WITH PALLADIO: “We wanted to bring part of the Veneto region to London for a real celebration,” said Claus Dietrich Lars, chief executive of Bottega Veneta, as he cast his gaze around Chiswick House, the 18th-century Palladian-style villa in west London.
The villa, built by Lord Burlington, was filled with northeastern Italian flavor on Thursday night, from the prosecco tasting stations and Aperol spritz cocktail bar to the Bottega Veneta craftspeople who were busily weaving the brand’s famous intrecciato designs with strips of leatherlike strands of fettuccine as guests walked among the rooms.
There were areas dedicated to all of the brand’s products, from leather goods to fragrance to jewelry, while downstairs in the garden, guests were offered Venetian-inspired food made by Giorgio Locatelli.
In the fragrance room, the entire Parco Palladiano collection was on display, with each juice meant to evoke a single moment in the day, including the smell of the air in the garden at dawn to high noon under the orange tree.
It was the biggest event that Bottega had ever done in London, with guests including Sabine Getty, Poppy Delevingne, Amber Le Bon, Lady Kitty Spencer, Arizona Muse, Marc Quinn, Fran?ois-Henri Pinault and a host of Bottega clients.
Lars said Bottega jumped at the opportunity of staging the show in the neo-Palladian villa because it felt like home.
Bottega is based in Vicenza, in Italy’s Veneto region, which was also the home of the 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio. The entire region is dotted with his spare, elegant villas, which are all influenced by ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
“We wanted to showcase our know-how, who we are, what we do and bring our historic craftsmanship to London, one of our biggest and fastest-growing markets in Europe. It was a unique opportunity to take an historic building and breathe fresh life into it.”
Next up for the brand is the opening of its 16,000-square-foot Madison Avenue store early next year and a show at New York Fashion Week in February to mark the occasion. The brand has taken three townhouses on Madison and fused them into the one store, which will also have a VIP area on the top floor.
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