Apr 12, 2021
Bottega Veneta took its social media distancing position to a new level of aloofness, when it announced that it
had staged a secret show in Berlin nightclub Berghain, while pointedly not releasing images of the event.
The Italian brand, which is owned by the French luxury conglomerate Kering, did, however, unveil a series of photos of notable DJs, artists, fellow designers and even its competition entering the famed Berlin after-hours techno club. Among whom Virgil Abloh and Stefano Pilati were seen walking into a fall-winter collection entitled 'Salon 02 Berlin.'
BV’s creative director Daniel Lee had staged 'Salon 01' in a top-secret show in London last autumn. Lee has also withdrawn BV from Instagram and Facebook, even if the house’s ad campaigns and his new audio-visual digital quarterly, called Issue, unveiled two weeks ago, garnered plenty of attention on social media.
Most curiously, Abloh is the menswear designer of Louis Vuitton, the largest brand within LVMH, Kering’s bitter rivals. Even taking into account collegiality, it will surely come as a surprise to many that a press release from a key Kering fashion house pointedly features an LVMH designer – especially as he is wearing Vuitton-logo clothes.
Despite releasing photos of Bottega Veneta guests, the Venetian marque did not provide any images from inside the club. There are only due to be released in June with a matching video.
Berghain does have a legendarily tight door, where uncool citizens are summarily and humiliatingly banished. Located inside a former power-plant with 18-meter-high ceilings, Berghain is often nicknamed the world capital of techno music, as those of us whom have made it inside can attest. A symbol of the German capital’s long love affair with decadence and hedonism, where patrons engage in sex in dark side rooms; all photography is banished inside Berghain, where every clubber is obliged to cover their smart phone with a sticker on entry.
Photos taken outside BV’s Salon 02 of guests arriving in daylight also show ballet star Roberto Bolle, music legend Tricky, ace DJ Honey Dijon, Burna Boy, Skepta, Slowthai, Kwes Darko, Oumi Janta, Michelle Nicol, Thea Djordjadze, Marc Goehring, Polina Semionova, Maria and Joerg Koch and Sven Marquardt – the famous head bouncer of the club.
Honey Dijon and Skepta were dressed in Bottega Veneta total looks from Salon 01; while Dijon also carried the Point bag, a key design in that collection.