Inspired by the Italian house’s Venetian roots, and with five distinct moods, these exquisite objets will elevate your dressing table as much as your skin
Matthieu Blazy’s Bottega Veneta has always been in motion. During his tenure at the Venetian brand, his clothes have embodied movement in countless ways: diaphanous and voluminous, his fringe-full skirts rustle, woven dresses shake, and jackets and pants explode out behind the wearer like a wake. In just one collection, the mood can move from grunge to bourgeois black dresses, from city tailoring to extra-terrestrial cocktail dresses. Referencing Futurist artists – like Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni – Blazy has always addressed the dynamism of form, knowing that on the body, silhouette can be both sculptural and in flux. But he’s also interested in the dynamism of our desires, the identities that don’t sit still. Famously, the items Blazy creates are not always what they seem: classic blue denim jeans and a cotton tank – his very first catwalk look for the label – were in fact made from the softest, easy-to-wear leather, a secret told only up close.
It makes sense then, that his first perfume collection for the label is similarly enigmatic. Launching today with five distinct moods, each scent nods to a different moment in a day, slinking from day to night – each is understated and unexpected, a little illusory. Blazy commissioned the scents to be created using only natural ingredients. He is dedicated to materiality and tactility – there’s his humble book bag, flannel shirt or brown paper bag (all leather, the accessories house’s go-to), the things we really touch. In perfume natural ingredients are dynamic on the skin, changing not only throughout the day but with each batch, year by year, as each ingredient’s harvest yields a tweaked identity, revealing new qualities anchored to the soil, the weather, the moment. They are never uniform.
Come with Me combines the bitter citrus splash of Italian bergamot and the powdery violet note of French orris butter, the rich, unctuous cream from the Iris rhizome, and alludes to a morning stroll around a garden (the cedar-lined avenues of Villa Borghese in Rome, perhaps). A peculiar mix of freshness and sumptuousness, it’s addicting and uplifting. Colpe di Sole – ‘Sunstroke’ (my personal favourite) – combines French Angelica oil with an orange blossom absolute from Morocco. Like all good white flowers, the orange blossom gives a sexy, sickly, creamy quality, while the angelica offers a muskiness that smells like skin and the smoothness of sun-dried bed linen. This one dries down softly – it smells like a sunny daytime nap – but there’s another impossible-to-describe note, sort of plasticky and clean. Acqua Sale – ‘Water Rises’ – is an uptown cologne bringing together woody labdanum absolute and juniper berries that deliver a saltwater-on-skin scent. This perfume is reminiscent of a gleaming hotel lobby – its robust richness enveloping you as you check in. Déjà Minuit – ‘Already Midnight’ – is a dirty nightclub mixture of Madasgcan geranium and Guatemalan cardamom. It’s spicy, carnal and smokey. Finally there’s Alchemie – ‘Alchemy’ – another late-night fragrance. With pink pepper and rich, resinous myrrh from Somalia, this one is heavy and heady, for an oud lover looking for something a little gritty.
The flacons are inspired by Bottega Veneta’s Venetian roots: that hub of cross-cultural exchange of both trade and ideas, ingredients, spices and languages. The beautiful glass vessels are peppered with air bubbles like the mouth-blown Murano glass Venice is known for. They feel organic: weighty and moulded to the palm. Globule-like caps, a gold ring around the collar and the slab of Verde Saint Denis marble (the same as that used in the redesigned BV stores) they sit upon, all place these objects somewhere on the spectrum between art and jewellery. They are immensely covetable and, unsurprisingly, quite the statement debut.
Bottega Veneta’s new fragrance collection is available now.
