Bag of tricks

HOW one man took leather goods company Bottega Veneta from the brink of failure to brilliant success.

Bottega Veneta Sydny

IN THE collective history of European luxury brands Bottega Veneta is relatively young.

Founded in 1966 as a small leather goods company in the Veneto region of northern Italy, its speciality is a technique of weaving leather called intrecciato. By the late 1970s it was a favourite of Jackie Onassis and Andy Warhol but by the 1980s it was languishing.

Twenty years ago, two British designers, Katie Grand and Giles Deacon, attempted to breathe new life into it but to little long-term avail. Then in 2001 the Gucci Group acquired the brand, which was on the brink of bankruptcy, for what was considered the bargain price of $US156 million.

And in just over a decade, under the creative direction of Tomas Maier, Bottega Veneta has become the best performing brand in the Gucci Group stable, which includes labels such as Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney. Revenue at Bottega Veneta rose 27 per cent in 2010 to €510.6 million ($695 million).

Yet Maier considers his greatest achievement with Bottega Veneta to be less about money and more about craftsmanship. “Bottega Veneta is defi ned by its craftsmanship, by the traditions and techniques of the artisans who make its products, but the artisanal way of life is increasingly hard to sustain in Italy,” says Maier, who was born in Germany and now divides his time between Milan, New York and Miami.

When he started with the brand in 2001 there were fewer than 50 artisans working at the company’s workshop in Vicenza. Today there are 230 and growing as Maier has increased sales by 800 per cent since taking the reins and founded an artisan school called La Scuola della Pelletteria to ensure the survival of Bottega Veneta’s unique style of leather goods. “It’s a real problem, not just for leather but for every craft in Italy,” he says. “If we don’t find a way to make the artisan’s life sustainable and desirable, the next generation won’t choose to be artisans.”

Since its founding, Bottega Veneta’s slogan has been “When Your Own Initials Are Enough” and it still appears on the backdrop to the brand’s ready-to-wear shows in Milan. One of Maier’s pet hates is the mania for “It” bags and the constant cycle of having to come up with the latest must-have bag season after season. “I think the financial crisis reminded people of the pleasure that comes from owning something distinctive and personal, something you love and use for many years,” he says.

One of the label’s top-selling items is the Cabat bag, which is a simple woven-leather sack with two handles, no hardware, no embellishment and, of course, no logo. It looks like a giant beach bag. The Vicenza workshop produces only about 500 of these bags each season and they invariably sell out and create waiting lists in much the same way as the much maligned “It” bags do.

The phenomenon of the Cabat, with its small production run, lack of adornment and utilitarian size, led fashion historian Valerie Steele to label it “stealth luxury”.

“It’s like a secret Masonic handshake,” she told The New Yorker earlier this year. “Only people in the know will recognise what you have and it’s really just not relevant to other people.”

Bottega Veneta recently opened its first store in Australia at Westfield Sydney. It stocks the brand’s leather goods, luggage and accessories but, as yet, not the ready-to-wear collections. Maier, who was women’s ready-to-wear designer at Hermes before he joined Bottega Veneta, introduced fashion to the brand in 2005 and his men’s and women’s collections are known for their understated style and luxurious fabrics. His designs are also praised for being extremely wearable. Another of Maier’s pet hates is the notion that one must sacrifice comfort for style. “It’s enough for a piece of art just to be beautiful but a dress or a bag must also function well,” he says.

Like many designers at luxury houses today, Maier oversees every aspect of the brand from products to advertising to store design. The design of the 200sqm Sydney store was overseen by him and features walls lined with suede, leather-covered door handles and custom-dyed New Zealand wool carpets.