People often talk about “heritage” as if it belongs behind glass—polished, preserved, and only revisited during anniversary years. When Bottega Veneta launches Bottega for Bottegas 2025, the atmosphere could not be further from that idea. The project arrives with the composure of a house tracing its own steps and asking a pointed question: who are the hands that shaped the world we now associate with Bottega?
The answer sits across three cities that have defined the brand’s evolution long before it became a cultural signifier—Venice, New York, and Milan. Rather than presenting them through runway spectacle or digital gloss, the house focuses on three deceptively simple objects: a handbound journal, silverplate glasses, and sterling-silver cocktail sticks. They look like thoughtful festive pieces, yet they also reveal what Bottega is circling back to—a view of luxury anchored in labour, patience, and the individuals who dedicate their lives to it.
Younger readers know the difference instinctively. When a market is saturated with quick collaborations and seasonal churn, a project that foregrounds workshops and specific techniques shifts the conversation. It asks us to observe the rituals that shape everyday life: the weight of a glass, the tension of a metal knot, and the grit of paper that resists the pen in a satisfying way. That’s where the story begins.
The Three Workshops That Define This Year’s Chapter
Paolo Olbi, Venice—The Notebook That Carries a City’s Memory
Paolo Olbi was born in Venice in 1937 and learned the craft of bookbinding the slow way—through extended apprenticeship, hands-on work, and continual study of Venetian, Byzantine and Islamic motifs. His notebook for the project carries that lineage quietly but unmistakably. The house imagines it as a place for cocktail recipes or late-night reflections, though it feels suited to anything that warrants attention. This is the sort of object people keep close because the materials never feel anonymous.
Heath Wagoner, New York—Barware with a Jewellery Mindset
Brooklyn silversmith Heath Wagoner approaches tableware with a jeweller’s eye. His background in industrial and jewellery design sharpens every detail of the sterling-silver cocktail sticks created for this year’s edition. The knot motif, so familiar to Bottega, becomes sculptural in his hands. New York’s creative landscape has always blurred the line between utility and ornament, and Wagoner fits seamlessly into that tradition, producing pieces that feel grounded yet quietly expressive.
Ganci Argenterie, Milan—Glasses Made the Old Way
Founded in 1926, Ganci is among Milan’s oldest silversmithing workshops, still run by the Morandino family. The two silverplate glasses crafted for the initiative come from methods the workshop has guarded for nearly a century: hand-finished casting, deliberate chiselling and engraving that rejects shortcuts. There is a steadiness to this kind of production, the sort that appeals to a generation increasingly drawn to work that takes time and resists haste.
The Three Cities and The Bottega Veneta’s Story
Venice is the house’s earliest compass. The city’s artisans, its layered history and its cross-cultural exchange have shaped everything from Bottega’s motifs to the rippling glass bottles that marked its first fragrance collection.
New York marked a turning point. When the house opened its first store on Madison Avenue in 1972, it gained a new level of visibility and tapped into a creative community that helped define its cultural presence.
Milan became its centre of gravity in the late 1990s, anchoring the design office and the shows that continue to shape the house’s public voice.
For 2025, these cities appear not as scattered references but as anchor points. They shaped Bottega’s identity, teaching the house how to see, how to build and how to evolve.
The Initiative’s Real Message for Younger Readers
A growing number of young buyers care deeply about origins. They want to know who makes each piece, who stands behind it and whether the story around it withstands a closer look. Bottega Veneta launches Bottega for Bottegas 2025 in a moment when that mindset is reshaping luxury from the inside out.
This year’s chapter answers those questions with unusual clarity. The artisans are named outright. The workshops have traceable histories. The techniques extend far beyond fashion cycles. And the objects feel designed for the texture of daily life—for gatherings, for quiet evenings, for rituals that matter because they are repeated. For readers tuned into intention and accountability, this edition of the initiative lands with a sense of grounding and reassurance.
What This Chapter Suggests About Luxury’s Next Turns
At the centre of this year’s project sits the idea of aperitivo hour—a moment shared, a pause taken before the night begins. It’s understated, which makes it fitting. Many young consumers today respond to luxury that doesn’t need to raise its voice. They look for pieces that fit into life rather than overshadow it.
The 2025 edition of Bottega for Bottegas speaks directly to that shift. Three workshops, three cities and three objects that hold their value in the way they’re made, not in how loudly they’re marketed. It’s an annual project that has grown calmer and more assured each year, and this chapter may be its most grounded yet. It reminds us that luxury’s most enduring forms rarely begin on a runway. They often begin at a worktable—with one person shaping one object until it feels right.