How It All Ends & Begins Again

Creative director Daniel Lee’s final act for Bottega Veneta echoes the triumph of design and the slow-paced values that most brands are often tempted away from.

- Manfred Lu

The city of Detroit. On the surface: America’s unremarkable, financial purgatory, the very place that sits between heaven and hell. Author Jeffery Eugenides best narrates the speculation of the American megacity, proclaiming that “planning is for the world’s great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on the other hand, was an American city and therefore dedicated to money, and so design had given way to expediency.”

It is a hell of a metaphor, as Bottega Veneta’s creative director, Daniel Lee, returns to it repeatedly throughout his third installation of the Salon travelling show. This time, away from the prestige of London and the secularity of Berlin’s underground in previous iterations, Lee’s final act was a presentation inspired and primed in a city so controversial, complex and forgotten it begs the question — Why Detroit? But a further observation would eventually lead us in on a promising premise, for both Bottega Veneta and the city of Detroit share the same myth of engineering marvels thriving in sheer silence.

Under Lee’s reign, Bottega Veneta has become one of the few brands without having ever spoken a word in the age of over-communication. With neither a presence on social media nor peacocking status levels with monograms and logos, Bottega Veneta has survived as the only brand reserved for those who “truly know”. Like Detroit, it shines brighter as it hides in the shadows. It takes more than just a glance to tempt you as if it only calls out to those who are truly meant to experience the city.