The cavernous, hangar-like former factory was dimly lit before last night’s Bottega Veneta show in Milan. Situated inside was a menagerie of 460 luxury beanbag chairs designed like animals. There were 60 different species, among them were rabbits, otters, snakes, dinosaurs, foxes, horses, and whales—all peacefully strewn in overstuffed Utopian idle and rendered in supple leather.

The set of Spring/ Summer 2025. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

It was jarring to see something so cartoon cutesy plopped down during fashion week. But the chairs are Bottega Veneta so they functioned on different levels. There was also something a bit ominous to them.
In the dark, industrial setting the chairs looked like shapes lost in the shadows and given beast traits and narrative by a child peering from under the covers at night. But the inherent joy of them easily surmounted unease. It was pretty magical to see hundreds of these anthropomorphized chairs staring forward impatiently waiting for the show to start. The various press and VIPS (including Julianne Moore and Jacob Elordi) filed in and slumped down into their animal beanbags. Seeing adults sprawled atop such silly-chic seating added another surreal layer.

The coveted front row of the show. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

This limited-edition lounge chair collection is suitably dubbed “The Ark.” They are creative director Matthieu Blazy’s whimsical adaption of the Sacco by Zanotta chair originally designed by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro in 1968. That chair encapsulated the radical movements of that year and would go on to define and become truly synonymous with the next decade. An icon of Italian design, there are Saccos in the permanent collections of MoMa, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Victoria & Albert, and, just across town from this Spring/Summer 2025 show, the Triennale.

The set of Spring/ Summer 2025. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

When the three original designers presented the prototype to Zanotta (at that early stage it resembled a transparent garbage sack filled with polystyrene nodules), they persuasively explained their vision: “We thought about the old mattresses stuffed with chestnut leaves, widely used by peasants: You take a sack, you fill it with leaves or similar materials, and this molds itself to fit the body.”

“The Ark” served as seating and scenography at the Summer 2025 show. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

A very limited selection of Blazy’s zoomorphic Saccos are for sale now on Bottega Veneta’s website. More iterations will creep out of hibernation over the next six months. Only two of each animal will be created, apropos given traditional biblical ark guestlist constraints.

The light grey rabbit and white chicken will be sold exclusively at Design Miami, which runs concurrently with Art Basel Miami Beach in December. “They sit low to the ground,” Blazy explained in a statement.  “So, you have a different perspective when you sit on them.”

Matthieu Blazy’s plush animal kingdom thrones. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

On the back of each chair was an understated handle, in the house’s signature Intrecciato woven leather. Blazy has ushered in an era at Bottega Veneta where killer seating is becoming as synonymous a house code as Intrecciato. It must have seemed a cockamamie idea at first, fashion show seating was always just a temporary bleacher and worked fine, after all. But Blazy saw a need and swooped with aplomb.

Since his arrival, seating has been a pillar of his Bottega Veneta tenure and “The Ark” fits in well with his “sit-now-buy-soon-after” shows. Blazy has previously issued creative collaborations with design icons like Gaetano Pesce and Le Corbusier.

A fox and a whale from “The Ark.” Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

So yes, Bottega Veneta are certainly adept at creating covetable luxury chairs now. But for this outing, they achieved a creative feat by having the show seating directly dialogue with the collection theme. This must have been confounding and complex logistically, a production nightmare for the Italian house to coalesce all of these strands timing wise. It was worth the concerted efforts. It’s rare that a fashion show can exude performance art energy, and the scenography certainly helped transmit such frisson.

Looks from Summer 2025. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

“Childhood” proved to be a compelling theme for clothes, models came out wearing a garment with one pant leg emerging from a skirt. Proportions and silhouettes were skewed and oversized to the pitch perfect amount without being clownlike. Some blazers hung down to the knee. The undercurrent was children playing dress up and trying on their parents’ clothes, and also other personae. It was all super cool,  a refined take on disorder with subtle, tasteful quirkiness.

Looks from Summer 2025. Courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

“Can we find power in sweetness?” Blazy asked. “What would the kid in you want? I wanted to feel the primal pull of fashion once more, a coming-of-age fascination.” Pull up a chair, let’s squish down and revert back to a more joyous time of life and ponder.