Bottega Veneta Establishes New Academy
MILAN — Further committing to supporting and developing artisanal craftsmanship, Bottega Veneta is launching the Accademia Labor et Ingenium — or craft and creativity in Latin — two words seen on the company’s original crest.
“Accademia Labor et Ingenium is a key strategic pillar to preserve Bottega Veneta’s unique savoir faire,” said Bottega Veneta chief executive officer Leo Rongone. “Exceptional craft and creativity are essential to our brand and to the heritage of our home region in Veneto. With the Accademia, we take the collective ethos at the heart of Bottega Veneta to a new level, building on our rich history of skill-sharing and innovation to nurture the artisans of the future.”
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The Accademia will be based between the Bottega Veneta atelier in Montebello Vicentino and a dedicated new space at the brand’s manufacturing site in Povolaro Dueville. It will allow the company’s employees, new hires, and external students to learn from master artisans through training activities, workshops, and courses.
Five Bottega Veneta master artisans will train 50 students per year. The latter are guaranteed employment at the company on completion of the course.
The academy builds on Bottega Veneta’s connection to the traditional “bottega” or “workshop,” where a collective of artisans honed their skills and transmitted knowledge from one generation to the next.
The school will also provide upskilling and reskilling curricula for existing Bottega Veneta employees, as well as training collaborations with regional partners.
The Accademia Labor et Ingenium’s first external collaboration begins today with a bespoke seven-week masterclass in partnership with Università Iuav di Venezia. The Artisanal Creative Process: Training Course in Bag Design and Product Development will offer eight students, selected from the Iuav network, a program of classroom, virtual and atelier-based learning.
The course includes the prototyping and production of different bag shapes and finishes, as well as insights into the luxury sector, and the development of professional communication and relationship-building proficiencies. The masterclass, led by Ruggero Negretto, is the brand’s fourth partnership with Iuav, following collaborations in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
“As a young apprentice at Bottega Veneta, I learned from the expertise, passion and precision of more experienced artisans,” said Negretto, one of Bottega Veneta’s longest-serving employees. “It’s a great honor and responsibility to pass on this unique knowledge to a new generation and continue the great tradition of the bottega in all its community, creativity, and cultural heritage.”
Negretto, is also the narrator of the film “Craft in Motion” by Massimiliano Bomba, unveiled in April and which shows work in progress on the Cabat, Kalimero, Sardine and other Bottega Veneta bags — each meticulously cut, stitched and woven by hand.
With the film, the Italian luxury brand shared insight into the making of its signature Intrecciato weave and into its artisanal know-how.
The film was shot on location at Bottega Veneta’s atelier in Montebello Vicentino, in northern Italy.
The film alternates exterior and interior shots with the artisans working in the atelier’s luminous setting in a restored 19th-century villa that houses the atelier, ensconced in a park about 16 miles from Vicenza, in the Veneto region. Bottega Veneta’s own training school is also located in the villa.
In October last year, speaking at WWD’s Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, Rongone said certain Bottega Veneta bags can be brought in for complimentary refresh and repair, to be replaced free of charge in some cases.
Called “Certificate of Craft,” the service also provides for courtesy loaner handbags in cases when repairs are lengthy.
The generational handover in Italy has been an issue for some time and brands are working to ensure a future for the pipeline, even partnering on acquisitions, as Prada Group and the Ermenegildo Zegna Group have done, taking stakes in Filati Biagioli Modesto and in knitwear specialist Luigi Fedeli e Figlio, or Chanel and Brunello Cucinelli in acquiring shares in cashmere manufacturer Cariaggi Lanificio. Gruppo Florence and MinervaHub have emerged to safeguard the technical and cultural know-how of small and medium-sized family-owned Italian companies.
Several Italian companies have their own training schools, from the Tod’s Group with the Bottega dei Mestieri, to Fendi, Brunello Cucinelli’s “school of crafts,” and Prada, to name a few. Fendi has also been supporting the Adopt a School project in Scandicci for bags and in Fermo for shoes to train new artisans.
At the Prada Group Academy, which was founded in the early 2000s, more than 200 new professionals will be trained over the next year across leather goods, footwear and ready-to-wear.
The group will also establish a permanent branch of the Prada Group Academy at its Scandicci plant, near Florence, dedicated to leather craftsmanship. Around 30 students will be part of the first program there.
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