Bottega Veneta: “Quiet Luxury” Understood through Scent

“Anything made by hand always has small ‘variations.’ They are not mistakes, but part of the process. … That is why, even when you go to a store, you will never encounter exactly the same product twice.”
— Matthieu Blazy (creative director, 2021–2025)​

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Basic Information

• Brand name: Bottega Veneta, Italian for “Venetian workshop”​
• Founded: 1966​
• Founders: Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro​
• Headquarters: Milan, Italy​
• Parent company: Kering group (since 2001)​
• Official website: bottegaveneta.com
• Fragrance division: The fragrance business began in collaboration with Coty Prestige in 2011. In 2024, it shifted to in-house development through Kering Beauté.

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The Founders and the Brand’s Origins

A Small Workshop in Vicenza

In 1966, a leather workshop came into being in Vicenza, a city in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy. One of its co-founders, Renzo Zengiaro, was a skilled artisan who had worked in leather-goods workshops from a young age. The other, Michele Taddei, was a businessman with a network of contacts among Italian tanned-leather suppliers.​

Zengiaro later recalled in an interview:

“We decided to open our own workshop. … We did not know what to call ourselves, so we thought of the traditional little shops in town, the workshops of painters and craftspeople, and then we thought of the Veneto. That is how Bottega Veneta was born. … We immediately focused on high-quality products using kidskin and tassels. A tannery in Naples supplied our materials.”
— Renzo Zengiaro​

The Veneto region where they established themselves was not then famous for leather goods in the way Tuscany was; knitwear was more prevalent. Consequently, the sewing machines in their workshop had been made for the region’s clothing industry. This created a fundamental problem: their needles were too short to sew the thick leather used for handbags.​

The Birth of Intrecciato

This limitation instead gave rise to a groundbreaking innovation. In 1975, Zengiaro and his artisans developed a technique for cutting thin, supple leather into narrow strips and weaving them diagonally to create a material that was both beautiful and strong. Called Intrecciato, Italian for “woven,” it became Bottega Veneta’s signature design.

The technique needed no logo: a single glance was enough to identify a Bottega Veneta product. The brand distilled this philosophy into the slogan “When your own initials are enough.” A precursor to the concept now known as “quiet luxury,” it set the house apart from other luxury brands that placed their logos front and center.​

Expansion into America and a Golden Age

In 1972, the brand opened its first overseas store on Madison Avenue in New York, beginning its international expansion. This move into America was led by Laura Moltedo, Taddei’s former wife. Having worked as Andy Warhol’s assistant, she had strong connections to the American cultural scene.

After Zengiaro left the company in the late 1970s and Taddei subsequently departed as well, Laura Moltedo took control of the brand and began directing it as creative director. In the 1980s, awareness of the brand soared when actress Lauren Hutton carried a Bottega Veneta Intrecciato clutch in American Gigolo. Warhol himself also made the short film Bottega Veneta Industrial Videotape for the brand, helping establish its position at the intersection of art and fashion.

Difficult Times, and the Tomas Maier Era

In the 1990s, however, the brand gradually began to lose its luster. Design innovation stalled and sales stagnated. By 2000, revenue had fallen to approximately $50 million. In 2001, Gucci Group, now Kering, acquired Bottega Veneta. On the recommendation of Tom Ford, Gucci’s creative director at the time, German designer Tomas Maier was appointed creative director.

Born into a family of architects in Pforzheim, Germany, in 1957, Maier studied at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture school in Paris. He brought extensive experience, including nine years designing women’s ready-to-wear at Hermès.​

Immediately after his appointment, Maier began returning the brand to its roots. He set out four “cornerstones”: “quality of materials, outstanding craftsmanship, timeless design, and contemporary functionality.”​

“No one at Bottega questions this. It is neither a trend nor a marketing decision.”
— Tomas Maier​

During Maier’s seventeen-year tenure, Bottega Veneta at least tripled its sales, growing into a business with annual revenue exceeding $1 billion. It became Kering’s second-largest source of revenue after Saint Laurent. Maier stepped down in June 2018 and was succeeded by British designer Daniel Lee. With bold colors and modern silhouettes, Lee established a new era dubbed “New Bottega,” but left in 2021. Franco-Belgian designer Matthieu Blazy then took over, leading the brand with a distinctive vision that combined tactile materials with intellectual playfulness. Blazy moved to Chanel as creative director in 2025.

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A History of Scent: Two Eras

The First Era: Collaboration with Coty Prestige (2011–2021)

Bottega Veneta first entered the world of perfume in 2011. Maier explained the timing as follows:

“Before I came to Bottega Veneta, perfume had never been discussed. After becoming creative director in 2001, I first prioritized repositioning the brand. A brand needs a strong image before it can release a perfume.”
— Tomas Maier​

Through a partnership with a newly established division of Coty Prestige, Maier gained access to perfumers in Grasse, in southern France. Of ten proposals, the one ultimately selected was the work of Michel Almairac (in Japanese), a veteran perfumer born in Grasse.​

The Debut: Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum (2011)

Maier’s vision of the scent was extremely concrete.

“An old house standing in the beautiful countryside of Italy’s Veneto region. Among the rolling green hills, a room with an old wooden floor, the walls of a library, and leather-bound books. The windows are wide open and a breeze comes in. Freshly cut grass, hay, moss, and flowers from the garden drift into the room on the breeze, and everything mingles. That was the starting point.”
— Tomas Maier, in an interview with WWD​

A leather accord had been a long-held dream for Almairac. The brief did not specify “leather,” but he had finally found the leather scent he had been pursuing for years and made it the core of his proposal. Maier’s eyes are said to have lit up at this secret leather accord, which combined a new synthetic material with natural materials Almairac knew intimately.​

“Without this leather scent, the perfume would not have existed. A leather accord is difficult in fragrance: it is hard to sell, and a strong leather smell is stubborn. So I rounded off the edges of the leather with chypre, making it softer. It is a fruity chypre.”
— Michel Almairac​

“This perfume is the trace I want to leave behind. I want it to live on for as long as possible.”
— Michel Almairac​

It took no fewer than 161 trials to complete the perfume. The final formula was settled after approximately two years. Centered on Italian bergamot, Brazilian pink pepper, Indian jasmine sambac, oakmoss, and patchouli, the fragrance was described as a “leather floral chypre.” It expressed through scent Bottega Veneta’s spirit of “invisible, private luxury.” The campaign featured Nine d’Urso, daughter of French fashion icon Inès de la Fressange, photographed by Bruce Weber.

Subsequent Developments

Maier remained consistently and deeply involved in fragrance development. In 2014, he introduced Knot, named after the brand’s popular clutch bag. Created by the celebrated master perfumer Daniela Andrier, it translated a meditative moment on the Italian Riviera into scent. Ingredients including mandarin, neroli, lavender, rose, and peony evoked a retreat on a hillside by the sea. The bottle design drew inspiration from Venetian glassmaking and traditional Italian carafes, with a metal ornament on the cap echoing the bag’s iconic knot.

In 2013, the brand also entered men’s perfumery with its Pour Homme series. Created by Daniela Andrier and Antoine Maisondieu, the scent layers the coolness of Calabrian bergamot, juniper, and Siberian pine with the richness of Canadian fir and sage before settling into a warm base of leather and patchouli. Illusione followed in 2019, with its Pour Homme a woody aromatic fragrance composed of lemon and bitter orange, white cedar and fir resin, and vetiver and tonka bean.

Between 2011 and 2021, Bottega Veneta released no fewer than thirty-three perfumes in collaboration with Coty. Around 2021, however, the brand quietly decided to discontinue its entire fragrance line.

The Second Era: Kering Beauté (2024–Present)

In 2023, parent company Kering established its own beauty division, Kering Beauté. In October of the following year, 2024, just one week after the presentation of the Spring–Summer 2025 collection in Milan, creative director Matthieu Blazy unveiled an entirely new fragrance collection.​

Blazy’s Vision: Skin, Venice, and Nature

Blazy is a Franco-Belgian designer who gained experience under Raf Simons and Phoebe Philo. Since becoming creative director in 2021, he had infused Bottega Veneta’s designs with tactility and movement, as epitomized by the famous instance of what appeared to be denim jeans and a cotton tank top turning out to be made from exquisite leather.

In developing the perfumes, Blazy collaborated with three perfumers at the German fragrance company Symrise: Alexandra Carlin, Aliénor Massenet, and Pierre-Constantin Guéros.​

In an interview with Le Monde, Blazy explained that rather than beginning with conventional ingredient lists or mood boards, he started by communicating “physical sensations.”

“I spoke to them, the perfumers, a great deal about skin. Skin caressed by the sun, skin wrapped in a lover’s embrace.”
— Matthieu Blazy​

“I wanted to avoid fragrances that smelled too strongly of flowers. And I wanted the perfumers to work only with materials of natural origin.”
— Matthieu Blazy​

The decision to use only natural materials entails significant technical constraints, because synthetic molecules play an important role in ensuring a fragrance’s longevity and stability. But Blazy welcomed these constraints. Natural materials change dynamically on the skin, with slight differences from one harvest year or batch to another. This resonated with Bottega Veneta’s artisanal spirit, in which “you will never encounter exactly the same product twice.”​

At the heart of the concept is an “olfactory Intrecciato”: the idea of “weaving” natural essences gathered from around the world, just as Venice once connected north and south, east and west. A vetiver note shared by all five fragrances quietly binds the collection together.

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The Brand’s Commitments

Bottle Design: The Water and Light of Venice

Created under Blazy’s direction, the flacon, or perfume bottle, is a work of art in its own right.

Its organic, undulating form evokes the waves of the Venetian lagoon. Its most distinctive feature is the air bubbles deliberately trapped in the glass. Normally considered defects in industrial glassmaking, these bubbles are embraced here as part of Murano’s traditional blown-glass aesthetic. Notably, this was the first time such bubbles had been achieved through a standard industrial glass-manufacturing process, an innovation that also led to an award at the 2025 PCD Innovation Awards.

The bottle’s base uses the same Verde Saint Denis marble found in Bottega Veneta stores designed by Blazy around the world. The cap is made of wood and cork, with no plastic whatsoever. Its shape is inspired by the wooden pilings, or piloti, supporting Venetian palazzi, while an engraved metal ring encircling the cap adds an accent of modern Venetian design.

The bottle is refillable, and the outer packaging is designed to be reused as a storage box. Such features reflect a thorough commitment to sustainability through zero single-use plastic.

A Philosophy of Scent: Skin as the “Final Ingredient”

At the core of Blazy’s fragrance philosophy is the idea that “skin is the final ingredient.” The brand’s official message expresses it this way:

“In the same spirit, each of the five scents reveals the full extent of its subtlety and depth only when it touches the wearer’s skin.”​

In other words, the fragrance contained in the bottle is not a “finished product.” It is completed only through the wearer’s body temperature, skin, and movement, becoming a “personal story” that continues to change throughout the day. This can be seen as an olfactory translation of the aesthetic Blazy has pursued in fashion: “silhouettes in motion.”​

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Fragrance Lineup

The First Collection (Unveiled in October 2024)

Five fragrances depict the progression of a day in Venice, from a morning walk to midnight. All are made with essences of 100% natural origin.​

Fragrance	Meaning	Principal Notes	Mood
Colpo di Sole	“Sunburn”	French angelica oil and Moroccan orange blossom absolute	The warmth of Mediterranean sunshine​
Come with Me	“Come with me”	Italian bergamot and French orris butter	Freshness like a morning walk through a garden​
Acqua Sale	“Salt water”	Spanish labdanum absolute and Macedonian juniper oil	The scent of skin wet with seawater​
Déjà Minuit	“Already midnight”	Madagascan geranium and Guatemalan cardamom	A spicy, sensual late-night atmosphere​
Alchemie	“Alchemy”	Brazilian pink pepper and Somali myrrh	Rich, intoxicating opulence​

AnOther Magazine described Colpo di Sole as “the scent of a nap in the sunshine” and Déjà Minuit as “a spicy, fleshy mixture from a dirty nightclub.”​

The Mezzanotte Collection (Unveiled in October 2025)

One year after the first collection was unveiled, three fragrances were added under the name Mezzanotte, Italian for “midnight.”​

• Good Morning Midnight: Deep woods, dark resins, and smoky warmth. Introspective, with a nocturnal tone. Priced in Japan at ¥75,900 for 100 ml.
• Hinoki: Centered on Japanese hinoki cypress, with herbal nuances and meditative clarity.​
• Almost Dawn: Airy woods and soft musk combine with the warmth of chestnut, the sensuality of truffle, and the gentleness of vanilla. It expresses the stillness before dawn.​

Whereas the first collection depicted “moments within a day,” Mezzanotte takes as its theme “moods in the hours on either side of midnight,” from hidden struggles toward dawn. It suggests that Bottega Veneta’s fragrances are developing beyond mere products into the construction of an entire world.​

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Incidentally…

• Warhol’s short film: Bottega Veneta Industrial Videotape, made by Andy Warhol around 1980, is a rare work symbolizing the connection between fashion brands and art, and continues to be discussed today.​
• Warhol in Blazy’s office: A 2024 WSJ. interview reported that an Andy Warhol portrait sketch hung in Blazy’s office. It is an anecdote that suggests the brand’s connection with art across generations.​