In the series “What I Loved Yesterday,” Harper’s Bazaar editors highlight one standout look from the previous day at Milan Fashion Week.
Bottega Veneta creative director Matthieu Blazy has a gift for manipulating leather. His collections for "New Bottega" have included leather work shirts that look like flannel; leather pants that pass for baggy jeans; and voluminous leather skirts with fringe that floats like a bird's feathers. But on the label's spring 2024 runway yesterday, the leather that stopped me mid-scroll on my phone was maybe the most straightforward offering he could put on a runway: oversize leather tote bags.
Oversize is an understatement for what Blazy actually presented. Models carried a range of bags with exaggerated proportions indicative of Mary Poppins-esque storage within. There were arched, top-handle totes with loose shirts and newspapers (which were also crafted from leather) haphazardly hanging out from the sides. There were enormous intrecciato bags looped over models' shoulders. A few bags scaled up silhouettes that have become new Bottega classics, like a gargantuan version of the 'Sardine Bag' with its titular fishy handle carved from wood. The bags were huge, but they didn't weigh down any of the looks.
I spend a lot of time testing, reviewing, and carrying designer totes as a fashion editor. Colossal versions of designers' best-selling bags can sometimes feel like a gimmick guaranteed to cause back problems; other times, they're so utility-focused that they lose all their allure. ("There's even a pocket for your water bottle!": useful, yes. Sexy...not so much.) This year, there's also the Tom Wombsgans-sized elephant in the room from Succession, courtesy of a season four episode that cast carrying a logo-heavy, "ludicrously capacious bag" as an unforgivable fashion faux pas.
In other words, useful, large tote bags can sometimes feel like a form of settling where style is concerned. Bottega's new ones are a massive exception. Their mix of woven and striped leathers was sumptuous and uncompromising, an invitation for me to dream of all the trips I could carry them on. Whatever they're stowing in their vast insides, they make the act of lugging changes of clothes and work laptops look romantic for once.
Blazy wrote in show notes that this collection embodies "the personal pleasure of dressing up, of being whoever and whatever you would like to be, of traveling in the imagination as much as in the world through clothing[.]" With one of Bottega's luscious, extra-large leather bags slung over my shoulder, I feel like even my Monday commute could be the odyssey he describes—and it can still carry absolutely everything I need for real life.
Bottega Veneta Spring 2024
Halie LeSavage is the fashion commerce editor at Harper's BAZAAR. Her style reporting covers everything from reviewing the best designer products to profiling emerging brands and designers. Previously, she was the founding retail writer at Morning Brew and a fashion associate at Glamour.
