Early into 2021 news broke that Bottega Veneta’s Instagram shuttered without explanation. Closing its most accessible window into matelasséd padded sandals, chained Cassette Bags, and Off Gauge Cashmere tailored into plunging V-necks – Daniel Lee’s out-and-out minimalism silently snubbed social in perhaps its most inimitable move yet, save for those teddy shearling scarves of Resort 2021. 

While seeing Bottega pivot away from the sticky ecosystems of content that most brands bend to navigate – a seminal factor in maintaining, reclaiming, and advocating their own relevance – seemed a grave wound to heal indeed, BV has now returned to our screens tenfold with the arrival of Issue, Lee’s own multi-pronged digital platform-cum-virtual journal. 

In a smart trick, Bottega has recouped the integrity of ‘content’ playing to its permanence, its story, and the life it lives beyond our screens. “Social media represents the homogenization of culture, everyone sees the same stream of content,” Lee told The Guardian’s Jess Carter-Morley in advance of Issue’s Wednesday launch. “A huge amount of thought goes into what I do, and social media oversimplifies it.”

Issue 01, “Summer Madness,” taps cultural phenom, Missy Elliott, reemerging from a 1990s career-crest to reimagine her Hoy Boyz music video, captured by photographer Derek Blanks. Swathed in quilted puffers and Lee’s latest wraparound sunglasses, bringing a novel edge to the muted hues and soft edges of ‘new Bottega,’ the discipline of stealth luxury tips into the avant-garde of street style, all the while remaining very much within the Bottega fold. 

Elsewhere, Oumi Janta skates through the pages, steadying Lee’s latest in disco-wear atop her trademark rollerblades. Shoe hedges scale the heights of fashion, jello Lug Boots set the table, as mauve icing weaves into some Intrecciato Lido Sandals; it’s balloon art, and backstage passes, and Barbara Hulanicki’s sketches – a carousel of slides of which dreams are made. 

Arriving quarterly to coincide with the launch of in-store collections, Bottega’s Digital Journal is “about expanding our universe and giving further meaning to the product,” said Lee. “It’s about allowing people to immerse themselves into our world — by taking their time rather than scrolling past on a feed.” 

Explore Issue 01 here.