In Italian, ‘bottega’ is used to refer to a traditional shop whereby the items on sale are made in an attached workshop (its etymology comes from the Latin word for warehouse, ‘apotheca’, and can also be used to refer to artists’ studios). As such, it conjures in the mind a more bygone era, one of homespun tradition and local expertise, of winding Italian streets and buzzing cobblers, bookmakers and woodworkers.

It is this sense of culture and tradition that Bottega Veneta – no doubt the most well-known ‘bottega’ in the world – hopes to evoke with ‘Bottega for Bottegas’, a project that now takes place annually and sees the Italian fashion house draft local artisans, from both Italy and beyond, to create a series of special items which arrive just in time for the festive season. Think of it as a unique, ready-made gift list for even the fussiest of loved ones; last year, products came from a round-the-world odyssey, spanning Italy, Taiwan, China and South Korea.

This year, Bottega Veneta is staying closer to home, seeking out six artisans from in and around Venice to contribute to the curation (the house was founded in 1966 in Vicenza, Italy, just outside of Venice). The edit is evocative of a curiosity shop or wunderkammer, spanning a wooden puzzle of a traditional Venetian home or palazzo by Signor Blum, a carpentry workshop that creates children’s toys and sculptures inspired by its home city, playing cards encased in a leather sheath by Modiano, a printer known for its luxurious card games, and a metal winged lion and gondola prow by traditional foundry Fonderia Artistica Valese.

Elsewhere is a striped glass vase by Laguna~B in local Murano glass, a Murano-glass starfish by Bruno Amadi, and a colourful tabletop glass sculpture by Robert Beltrami of Wave Murano Glass, which is currently the youngest factory on the island of Murano.

Led by the house’s creative director Matthieu Blazy, the Bottega for Bottegas project – which will also take over international billboards this Christmas – encapsulates the designer’s desire to elevate Bottega Veneta with traditional craft (albeit in playful, offbeat fashion, like a recent reproduction of a Richard Scarry children’s book in the house’s woven ‘intrecciato’ leather). ‘Craft is not a trend. Neither is it something that has to be improved. It is a timeless technology,’ Blazy has previously said. ‘The irregularities of handwork make each Bottega Veneta design unique. This for me is true luxury.’

Discover Bottega for Bottegas at bottegaveneta.com and the house’s stores.

bottegaveneta.com