Everything you need to know about Bottega Veneta's new creative director, Matthieu Blazy

Bottega Veneta’s parent company Kering did not have to look far to find a new creative director after Daniel Lee’s sudden departure from the label last week. Matthieu Blazy, who served as ready-to-wear design director under Lee since 2020, has been promoted to the top position.

The 37-year-old Paris-born designer comes with an impressive resume. Having graduated from La Cambre in Brussels, he began his career as a menswear designer for Raf Simons, before heading to Maison Martin Margiela, where he was head designer at Maison Margiela Artisanal in the early 2010s. This was where his work first started to attract attention.

After presenting his Artisanal collection at Margiela in 2014, Blazy received a congratulatory shoutout from Simons. Posted on Instagram by former Vogue International editor Suzy Menkes, the shoutout brought attention to his designs in spite of the house's collective approach, helping to significantly raise his profile as a designer that did not hold a top creative title. 

In 2014, Blazy was named senior designer at Celine, where he worked alongside Phoebe Philo and his predecessor, Daniel Lee. He then returned to work with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein from 2016 to 2019, before joining Bottega Veneta in 2020.

Chairman & CEO of Kering François-Henri Pinault stated: “The very solid foundations, specific codes and unique identity of Bottega Veneta enable us to nurture great ambitions for the future of this luxury House. I am confident that Matthieu Blazy’s wealth of experience and broad cultural background will allow him to bring his creative impetus to the task of carrying on the legacy of Bottega Veneta.”

A French and Belgian national, Blazy lives between Antwerp and Milan and will present his first collection for Bottega Veneta in February 2022.