Bottega Veneta: Art of Collaboration

In 2002, Tomas Maier, Bottega Veneta’s Creative Director, launched the Art of Collaboration—a project that invites a world-renowned photographer or contemporary artist to collaborate on the Italian brand’s campaign for each season. With more than a thousand photographs, this book chronicles the comprehensive series of creative partnerships since the beginning. Divided by each seasonal campaign from 2002 to 2016, Bottega Veneta: Art of Collaboration documents the collaborations between Tomas Maier and all the artists who have contributed to the creation of Bottega Veneta’s advertising portfolio including Lord Snowdon, Annie Leibovitz, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Robert Longo, Nan Goldin, Nick Knight, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and others. These creative individuals translate Bottega Veneta’s timeless and refined elegance into beautifully cinematic campaigns season after season. Tomas Maier, whose résumé includes positions at Sonia Rykiel and Hermès, joined Bottega Veneta in 2001 as Creative Director and re-established the original identity of the brand founded in Vicenza in 1966, focusing on its values and original motto, “When your own initials are enough.” Since joining, Maier guided the company with his distinctive vision of functional design and holistic creativity built around the dynamism of the collaborative process. Collaboration at Bottega Veneta is not only a meaningful alliance between the creative vision of its designer and the innovative techniques of the Italian master craftspeople, but extends to the way Bottega Veneta partners with talents on its advertising portfolio, and other initiatives. Featuring some of today’s brightest visionaries working in photography, often from outside the world of fashion, Bottega Veneta: Art of Collaboration illustrates how they have each interpreted the house’s modernist aesthetic and material elegance, resulting in a book that will be an essential volume for photography aficionados.

About the Contributors

Tomas Maier has been the Creative Director of Bottega Veneta since 2001, and he also designs his own label, Tomas Maier. Daphne Merkin is a novelist, essayist, and literary critic. Tim Blanks is an award-winning fashion journalist. Bottega Veneta has established a new standard of luxury since its founding in the Veneto region of Italy in 1966. Steeped in the traditions of Italy’s master leather craftsmen and long celebrated for its extraordinary leather goods, it has recently emerged—under the creative direction of Tomas Maier—as one of the world’s premier high-end lifestyle brands defined by four unchanging principles: outstanding craftsmanship, innovative design, contemporary functionality, and the highest quality materials. The company’s motto, “When your own initials are enough,” expresses a philosophy of individuality and confidence that applies to a range of products including ready-to-wear, shoes, jewelry, fragrances, home, and more. For more information, please visit www.bottegaveneta.com