The Biggest Winner Of This Year’s Fashion Awards? Bottega Veneta’s Daniel Lee

Daniel Lee has conquered planet fashion. The Bottega Veneta creative director topped off his stellar year by scooping four of the biggest accolades at this evening’s Fashion Awards: Designer of the Year, British Designer of the Year Womenswear, Accessories Designer of the Year and Brand of the Year.

Even without tonight’s clean sweep, 2019 had already been the year of Bottega. Since unveiling his first collection for the house, Daniel has been the name to drop (and wear) for fashion insiders. At the spring/summer 2020 shows in September, Bottega dominated the front row: the bulbous square-toe sandals and pouffy clutch bags, lacquered satin shirts and woven leather coats won the popularity contest off the runway. Back in the real world, its popularity is also soaring. Lyst reports more than 10,000 page views per month for the Pouch bag, with searches for the barely-there Stretch sandals increasing by 471% in July.

The Italian brand’s ubiquity shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Since new creative director Daniel Lee unveiled his first collection for the house in March (formerly known primarily as a purveyor of quiet luxury and the signature woven intrecciato leather accessories) his designs have garnered the kind of giddy excitement from fashion insiders last elicited by ‘old’ Céline. That makes sense; Daniel worked there too, under Phoebe Philo, and has inherited her nous for offbeat minimalism and apparent sixth sense for anticipating what women want to wear. Just don’t pigeonhole who that woman is. ‘The Bottega woman is individual, it’s not about “labelling” her,’ Daniel tells Grazia. ‘Bottega is very emotive; I love seeing people enjoying the brand, making it their own.’

So is new Bottega the new ‘old Céline’? In desirability terms, yes. ‘It’s definitely filling the gap and representing luxury fashion in a way that appeals to fans of Phoebe’s Céline,’ says Natalie Kingham, fashion and buying director of Matchesfashion.com, which has just launched an exclusive capsule collection with the house. ‘The collection is beautifully made, with clean silhouettes, beautiful fabrics and elevated detailing, which has a similar sensibility.’

‘Anything Bottega updates your current wardrobe insanely!’ adds MyTheresa’s fashion buying director Tiffany Hsu, who packed ‘around 10 and counting’ pieces for her month-long trip around the four fashion cities. The Danish influencer Pernille Teisbaek is already a fully-fledged member of the Bottega fan club, wearing pre-fall’s leather Bermuda shorts ‘so many times that my husband started to worry I’d thrown out all my other pants’. She thinks the appeal is in Daniel’s clever interpretation of Bottega’s half-century heritage. ‘He is true to the history of the brand and doesn’t make it into something unrecognisable just to make a statement,’ she says.

As for Daniel’s ambition for the brand? ‘Bottega is global, bold, direct, immediate. I want it to stand out from the crowd.’ It’s certainly doing that – even when everyone is wearing it.

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