Blasey epitomizes an alternative approach: a designer who thinks second of the product, the people who make it, and the people who buy it. “He doesn’t see himself as being in the driver’s seat of the company,” said François-Henri Pinault, chief executive of Kering, which owns Bottega Veneta. “He saw himself in the middle of the car.”
That doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t know exactly where they’re going.
building a house
“I said I wanted to go against the monovision trend,” Mr. Blasey said of his initial pitch to Mr. Pinault. He was in his office at Bottega Veneta’s headquarters in Milan, wearing a white Patagonia T-shirt and faded jeans.
He told Mr. Pinault that he thought Bottega should focus on craft rather than design. It should be “a house, not a brand.” It may sound like semantics, but it’s the difference between a garment that advertises its origin and one that fits seamlessly into your wardrobe. And it was a marked departure from Mr. Lee’s approach, which associated Bottega with a single color: a bright grassy green, making the pieces recognizable from blocks away. It also says a lot about how Mr. Blasey approaches not just his work, but the world.
When he moved into his office, which was a white box, he replaced the walls with dark brown wood paneling to make it look like a “Chamonix chalet” and make the room feel more homely. Currently, one end of it is fixed to the seating area where Isa Genzken’s chair is located. One faces Nefertiti on a pedestal, the other by a long conference table. There’s a bowl of Ricola lemon mint lozenges on the table, but no computer.
“I haven’t opened my computer for the past six months,” Blazee said. “I have two, but I don’t use them much. I sketch a lot, I talk a lot, I read books, I have a phone.” On the floor under a huge window are piles of 16 different papers. , each corresponding to a different collection or project. Perfume, a new store concept, a fanzine created with people he admires (most recently British designer Hussein Chalayan has joined). Mr. Chalayan used pen and ink, watercolor and glitter to create works for Mr. Blasey’s final show).
The walls were decorated with a series of artworks. Blasey is collecting first drafts. He said it started because he could afford it and liked the idea of it being “the first expression of something.” Then he said, “I just can’t stop.”