Bottega Veneta Winter 2024 Ad Campaign

Review of Bottega Veneta Winter 2024 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Matthieu Blazy and Photographer Alec Soth with models Mariacarla Boscono, Zayna Cisse, Luke Clod, Walid Fiher, Imaan Hammam, Liz Kennedy, Hoyong Kim, Hejia Li, Mamuor Majeng, Rolf Schrader, Hedi Ben Tekaya, and Penelope Ternes

Unidentified fashion object: Bottega Veneta’s Winter 2024 campaign explores an uncannily beautiful intersection of the earthy and the alien. The campaign was shot by photographer Alec Soth with a film directed by Rahim Fortune.

The imagery draws its energy from the deserts of the American West, the area most commonly associated with UFO sightings. Captured at locations in Nevada and Utah, not far from Area 51, Soth’s imagery both leans into this spirit of the conspiratorial and outlandish (a few images feature roadside spacecraft or characters gazing with anticipation at the sky) as well as the delicate reality of terrestrial life in these harsh landscapes. Despite the desolateness and relative lack of rainfall, life still finds a way.

Juxtaposed against these backdrops, Bottega Veneta’s cast of characters and design spirit cut a particularly striking form. The elusive brilliance of Matthieu Blazy’s take on contemporary luxury that makes the most of the atelier’s craft is on full display. Feathery skirts dance in the desert breeze; sculptural, oversized coats provide protection as they form a darkly dramatic presence against the infinite neutral tones of the desert; intrecciato accessories echo the scrappy, twisted, unassumingly beautiful forms of desert flora.

The accompanying short film deepens the feeling of introspection while also building a powerfully anticipatory mood. Opening with a sweeping shot of the desert landscape, its gorgeous cinematography then follows its characters as they move through this environment – sometimes with an exploratory openness, sometimes with purpose. These shots are

interspersed with closeup looks at desert plants trembling in the breeze. Featuring music by Le Motel, the suspenseful soundscape is the feature that solidifies the film’s powerful impact. Combining ambient recordings of crackling fire and wind, the buzzing electronic score builds anticipatorily toward some impending revelation.

The campaign is a beautiful continuation of the brand’s practice of putting its spirit of craft in motion in conversation with distinct, real locations and seeing this conversation of design and life through gorgeous photographic perspectives. While Bottega Veneta is still off social media, we’re certain that the images and film, with their sweeping visual narratives composed of striking vignettes, will still find their way onto Instagram and drive engagement back to the brand. Bottega Veneta has abducted our imagination, and we don’t want to go back down to Earth.