Unexpectedly, Bottega Veneta has decided to come back on social media. Not on Instagram; I stopped using it in January 2021. Instead, I used Sina Weibo in China. Now, the brand has released three posts, all of which have received over 2 million views and are intended to promote the Fall/Winter 2023 collection that will be unveiled in Milan tomorrow evening. Bottega continues to be MIA on western social media.

When the company left Instagram, François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering, provided a succinct explanation of the brand’s marketing strategy: “Bottega decided, in line including its positioning, to lean much more on its ambassadors and fans by giving them the material they need to talk about the brand through various social networks, letting them speak on behalf of the brand rather than doing it alone.” With the hashtag #NewBottega (120k posts on Instagram and 22.6 million views on TikTok) Bottega Veneta’s cult following has maintained the enthusiasm surrounding the company since the beginning of Daniel Lee’s artistic leadership, who has on the other hand openly criticized social media. In an interview with The Guardian, he stated, “Social media trivializes my work, which is the result of much study and meditation.”

Given that the films, which were also previously posted on the brand’s official website, are exclusively focused at the Chinese market, Bottega’s new entry on Sina Weibo does not appear to indicate a possible return to Western social media. Although it has the same aesthetic layout as Twitter and Instagram, the social media platform Weibo is very different from those platforms in that it is utilized for advertising rather than as a place to let one’s creative side go. It’s unknown if Bottega’s Intrecciato will appear on TikTok in the future. Bottega’s It-Bags have maintained their status despite the repetitive content overload for small displays, that much is evident. Who can predict what Matthieu Blazy will do.