When the seasons change, temperature is not the only thing that shifts. The light changes, the city changes, and so does the way people move. What the body asks of clothing changes, too. Living in Milan, Louise Trotter took this sense of transition—from spring into summer—as the starting point for Bottega Veneta’s Summer 2027 collection.

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Layers are gradually undone, and the things that once protected the body are shed. Air emerges between clothing and skin, as garments move from enveloping the body toward setting it free. As the body becomes lighter, its senses begin to open as well. Running through Summer 2027 is the sense of new possibility that comes with this lightness.

Making Clothes Lighter Without Making Craft Lighter

Soft shades of white, ecru, and beige appear throughout the collection, alongside silhouettes that leave a subtle distance between fabric and body. Tailoring loosens without losing its precision, while leather becomes as light as a feather. Familiar garments—shirts, dresses, trousers, jackets—are layered while preserving space around the body.

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Yet making clothes lighter does not mean simplifying the way they are made. On the contrary, the craft Trotter pursues becomes increasingly sophisticated.

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Beneath garments that appear relaxed lies precise tailoring and an advanced approach to material. Lightness is not achieved by making the craft itself lighter. Rather, it is about allowing extraordinary technique to exist without appearing as weight on the garment. Here, one of Bottega Veneta’s propositions for contemporary luxury begins to emerge.

Moving Freely Between Masculine and Feminine

Clothing is not the only thing being unlayered. In Summer 2027, masculinity and femininity meet, allowing the boundaries between them to blur. But this is not about smoothing their differences into a single, androgynous ideal.

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Instead, it is about moving freely from masculine to feminine, and from feminine to masculine, without having to remain in either place. Relaxed tailoring meets softer layers, oversized bags, and scarf-like details. Elsewhere, a vivid pink shirt is paired with yellow trousers, while a crisp shirt meets a shimmering, intricately embellished skirt.

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Gradually, the question of whether a particular element belongs to men or women becomes less important. Neither body nor clothing is fixed in one place. Perhaps for Trotter, freedom lies precisely in this ability to move.

Intrecciato Weaves More Than Material—it Weaves People Together

Intrecciato, the technique at the heart of Bottega Veneta, takes on a broader meaning in Summer 2027. Leather is not the only thing being woven. Different disciplines, gestures, and people meet and form relationships with one another; collaboration itself becomes another form of weaving.

That idea extends beyond the runway.

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Placed throughout the all-white show space are Karton Hocker, resin-coated cardboard stools by artist Illya Goldman Gubin. Each originates from a cardboard box the artist physically embraced and crushed with his own body. The interlocking flaps evoke Bottega Veneta’s Intrecciato, in which leather fettucce are woven together.

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Through direct contact with the body, an easily overlooked material such as cardboard is transformed into a sculptural object, each one unique. Here, too, weaving is not a means of producing uniformity. It becomes a way of connecting differences while allowing each to retain its individuality.

Sound, Too, Is Woven into a Form That Exists Only Once

Before the show begins, a site-specific sound work by Florian Hecker fills the space. Suspended overhead are 20 structures combining speakers with stainless-steel acoustic reflectors. Each produces a different sound, their resonances overlapping to create a composition that exists only in that particular place and moment. Once formed, it can never be repeated in exactly the same way.

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The show is accompanied by an original soundtrack from British artist Mark Leckey. Sounds sampled from different genres and eras spanning the 1960s through the 1990s intersect and are woven into a new temporal experience.

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Leather, cardboard, people, sound, time. Rather than making disparate elements uniform, each is allowed to retain its own character while entering into relation with the others. Weaving, a technique Bottega Veneta has cultivated for decades, expands here beyond the making of a single object into a way of connecting different forms of existence.

Summer Begins with a Single Flower

And on every seat, there is a single flower.

Tulips, peonies, lilies. What appear at first to be natural blooms are individually handcrafted from soft leather. Craft is pushed to a remarkable level, yet instead of displaying its virtuosity, it is transformed into something as light and simple as a single flower.

The gesture echoes the collection itself.

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From spring into summer, layers are undone and air is allowed to move between body and clothing. Masculinity and femininity are traversed freely. Different materials, people, and forms of expression are woven together, without enclosing everything within a single finished form.

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Perhaps the optimism of Bottega Veneta Summer 2027 lies not in continuing to add more, but in creating enough space to move more freely.

Wear less, feel more. And leave just enough room for the wind to carry something through.

The summer Louise Trotter imagines is one in which becoming lighter allows us to become more open to the world.