Bottega Veneta Is Selling Its Colorful Runway Chairs In 400 Unique Designs
By Mikelle Leow, 27 Nov 2022
Bottega Veneta is inviting art collectors and the style-obsessed alike to be—or rather, own—a part of fashion history, even if they weren’t present at the actual event. While high-fashion shows are typically closed-door spectaculars, the luxury house is now giving fans a front-row seat, or 400, by displaying and releasing the chairs at its Spring/Summer 2023 show for the public.
The Italian label commissioned artist and architect Gaetano Pesce to design the vivid, color-blocked resin chairs that would line the runway in Milan. In total, Pesce produced 400 distinct looks as a metaphor to the world’s diversity and how everyone is different … a few thoughts to sit on.
The brand’s creative director Matthieu Blazy tells Vogue that the chairs were intended to depict “the world in a small room,” and everyone took the idea and ran with it as far as they could.
“We are all different and this is our defining quality—otherwise we are just a copy. We are all originals and this is one of the themes of my design,” Pesce expresses in a statement.
“People who say we are all the same—f**k them!”
The series is inspired by a phrase Pesce had penned into a book he gifted Blazy, who has always been a fan of the artist, after a heartfelt discussion about the potential partnership. It’s entitled Come stai?, which means “how are you?” in Italian.
The eye-popping chairs are earmarked to be showcased once again at the Design Miami fair in Miami Beach from November 30 to December 4. Even more notably, art lovers can purchase them via the Bottega Veneta website.
Collectors should see these as functional works of art instead of just pieces of furniture. Each chair is vibrant in its own way, whether it is split in the middle by pastel tones, donning a smiley face, or brightened up with an image of the sun. With that being said, the prices are art gallery-worthy, with each piece going for US$6,500 to US$10,900 a pop.
Bottega Veneta isn’t the only fashion house whose home statement pieces are now selling like hot cakes. Balenciaga just put up US$46,000 benches in its stores, and they were snapped up immediately.
[via Vogue and Architectural Digest, images via various sources]