For the spring 2025, Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy was inspired by childlike wonder. “As a kid, there is the adventure of the everyday—there’s a feeling that anything could happen, no matter how fantastical, and we are not so bound by regular expectations and conventions,” he said in the press release for the collection. “The door is open to the possibility of strange realities and wonder, impossible scenarios that banish disillusion. This is about the power of sincerity over strategy.”
On the runway, his vision was most evident in the pair of teenaged-looking models wearing oversized suits as if ruffling through their parents’ clothing and trying on the suits to prim and pose in front of the mirror. The next day, when editors headed to the label’s headquarters to see the collection up close and personal (also known as a re-see), they saw just how much Blazy was thinking about “the adventure of the everyday”; they were greeted by a giant copy of Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever, starring Lowly Worm on the front in an all-red background, remade entirely in the house’s signature intracciato leather. It caused a minor stir on Instagram—Who didn’t spend hours as a child reading their Richard Scarry books over and over agai and imagining what it would be like to drive an apple? It was the ultimate desirable objet d’art appealing to both an adult sense of extravagant luxury, and childhood nostalgia. “As for many other people, Richard Scarry’s books were beloved companions in my childhood—and as an adult I still consider them exceptional acts of storytelling and imagination,” Blazy shared in an email. “This whole world and the characters he crafted on the page are so universal in their appeal: almost anyone who picks up a Richard Scarry book can’t help but smile. There’s something pure and hopeful in that.”
Now the book is finally available for sale, along with a small capsule collection of items inspired by the work of the beloved British author. They include a striped Intrecciato Dust bag, a belt with an apple shaped buckle, striped wallets in a variety of sizes, and a card holder. To celebrate the release of the collection, Bottega Veneta held an event at their so-called New York Residence, a special space in the 5th floor of the maison’s Madison Avenue boutique, hosted by Olympia Scarry, artist and granddaughter of Richard. “I loved the idea because it’s really true to the book itself,” Olympia added during a video call. “I remember when I was at school, I would protect my books and my notebooks with a cover, and this is like that in a way, just with an extra touch.” She had known Blazy for a while, and when she found out that Blazy was a fan of Lowly Worm, she asked her dad Huck, who often helped Richard with the illustration as a teenager, and went on to become an author and illustrator himself, to create a small drawing of Lowly shaped like Blazy’s initials. “It was sort of like a personal note, and that’s how the conversation [for the collaboration] started,” she added.
At the event, children and their fashionable parents enjoyed a reading of Richard Scarry’s “The Night Before the Night Before Christmas” by the artist Camile Henrot, passed chicken nuggets and apple juice served in glass milk bottles with striped paper straws, and sketching and coloring lessons with Faber and Castell colored pencils on Bottega Veneta-branded notepads. Though at times the evening’s action seemed to threaten the space’s made-for-adults furnishings like their freshly painted white walls or the furniture with beautiful cream bouclé upholstery, crises were averted thanks to an attentive mother who suggested Sharpies be taken out of young children’s reach. Guests were also able to see a few of Richard Scarry’s own original drawings.
Appropriately, Blazy’s favorite Richard Scarry character is Lowly Worm. “His outfit is exceptional: one shoe, the Tyrolean hat, the red bowtie, the blue and green body tube, and an apple for a car! It’s just brilliant and joyful.”
Photo: Daniel Salemi
Photo: Daniel Salemi
