The Italian luxury brand Bottega Veneta, famous for their intreciatto woven leather designs, has reappeared on Chinese social media after a two-year hiatus, according to Fashion Business News.
Bottega Veneta posted a preview of its upcoming winter showcase on the microblogging site Weibo on February 22 after having last posted in January 2021. They also closed their accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter during this time, reportedly due to the former creative director’s views on social media.
Speaking on this issue BV’s then creative director, Daniel Lee, told the Guardian in 2021 “Social media represents the homogenisation of culture. Everyone sees the same stream of content. A huge amount of thought goes into what I do, and social media oversimplifies it.” Daniel Lee stepped down later in November 2021, moving onto a role as chief creative officer at the British luxury fashion house Burberry.
Stepping back from social media gave the brand an air of mystery, after a substantial amount of buzz had already been generated around the brand from social media campaigns in the preceding years. At the same time, the BV name has stayed relevant as other accounts have continued promoting their products long after the brand left social media.
Just days before Bottega Veneta’s first Weibo post in two years, the Hong Kong actress Karena Ng posted what appear to be official promotional photos on behalf of BV to the site. The Japanese American singer Mika Hashizume, famous in China as a member of the boy band Into1, posted similar content on February 18. The images of him posing with a BV woven leather handbag received almost 500,000 shares and 450,000 likes.
These posts are already using a Bottega Veneta hashtag, creating the ideal opportunity for the official BV account, which currently has over 2000 “fans”, to drive engagement now that they are back online.
Bottega Veneta may be planning on retaining an air of mystery despite re-entering the online fold – aligning with Mika Hashizume’s use of “quiet power” to describe the brand in his Weibo post. There is clear continuity with Lee’s approach according to an interview Blazy gave for Vogue in August 2022: “His approach has been to lean toward specificity and art as a relief from the online social churn—or, as he puts it, ‘How many influencers can really influence something that has been influenced already 5,000 times before?’”.
As of February 23, no official account exists for Bottega Veneta on Instagram and Twitter, and the brand’s Facebook account has no posts.
