Empire State Of Mind

Call it the great migration. For one night only, Bottega Veneta made a rare appearance at New York Fashion Week, in honour of the recent unveiling of its largest flagship in the world. Amy Yasmine gets an exclusive first-hand experience in the Big Apple.

“Uptown Funk you up/Uptown Funk you up”—the words to Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk” were playing in my head as I made my way uptown towards Bottega Veneta’s latest maison up on New York’s bustling Madison Avenue. Really, I couldn’t help myself. Because not only was I literally hustling through the traffic in the Financial District, but the Italian label’s newfound funk had long been playing in my head—since its Spring/Summer ’18 collection showed last September, to be exact.

Perhaps it was the show’s unexpected soundtrack of Mary J Blige mixes that blared through a gilded Italian palazzo, or maybe it was the rugged rivets that adorned British model Adwoa Aboah’s punked up suede shirt dress on the runway. Nonetheless, this new spunk gave the house a fresh perspective, and creative director Tomas Maier took it to full effect. For a one-night-only occasion, Bottega Veneta bucked its regular slot at Milan Fashion Week for New York to present its Autumn/Winter ’18 collection at the American Stock Exchange Building—all in the name of its newly opened flagship, its largest in the world.