Louise Trotter Brings a New Spirit to Bottega Veneta with SS26
Courtesy of Bottega Veneta
Louise Trotter’s arrival at Bottega Veneta was one of the most anticipated moments of the season and her debut Spring Summer 2026 collection in Milan did not disappoint. As the first woman to lead the house she stepped into the role with quiet assurance, offering a vision that felt both intimate and expansive. What unfolded was not a revolution staged for shock but an act of continuation, a way of folding her own sensibility into the brand’s already intricate fabric.
Trotter spoke of wanting to see Bottega Veneta as a living person, a sentiment that guided her exploration of the Veneto workshops and the hands of the artisans who define the house. That sense of craft as a pulse rather than a static symbol infused the collection with depth. She revisited the years when Bottega first defined its pared back identity and reimagined that language for now, finding clarity not through reduction but through presence.
The intrecciato weave, long a signature of the house, appeared everywhere with fresh intention. No longer confined to bags it emerged on jackets, trousers and collars as if the code itself had stepped out of its assigned place to take on new meaning. The knot returned too, reinterpreted on closures and accessories, a reminder of how symbols live and breathe when given space to move.
Silhouettes balanced structure and release. Tailored jackets grounded the collection while airy coats lifted away from the body, creating a dialogue between tension and ease. Fringe details shimmered with energy, knit accents offered warmth and patent finishes caught the light. Leather, of course, remained central but in her hands it shifted from strict to supple, from sculpted to weightless, always suggesting possibility.
Accessories carried the kind of clarity that connects instantly with the market. Reinvented classics like the Lauren and the Cabat found their place alongside oversized woven totes, crocodile pieces and new dopp kits, each design extending the brand’s language in ways that felt both familiar and new. Shoes stretched the spectrum from clogs to pumps, their finishes ranging from studded to sheerling softened, evidence of a collection designed not just to be seen but to be lived with.
The industry’s response was marked by enthusiasm. Many critics observed that Trotter’s vision shifts Bottega Veneta from the silence of so called quiet luxury into something more articulate, not louder but clearer, a confidence that communicates without excess. The symbolic weight of her appointment also cannot be ignored. Among the major houses debuting new leadership this season, only two placed women at the creative helm. Her presence here speaks to a slow but real reshaping of fashion’s upper ranks.
What Trotter has offered is less a debut than a conversation. She has not tried to overwrite the story of Bottega Veneta but has chosen instead to continue it, layering her own cadence into the existing narrative. The Spring Summer 2026 collection becomes a statement of continuity and renewal at once, an opening chapter that suggests more chapters to come.