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On Tuesday morning, the world awoke to a slightly smaller social media universe: overnight, Bottega Veneta, one of the biggest fashion brands in the world, deleted their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. “Sorry, this page is not available,” reads the @BottegaVeneta URL, where the brand had over 2.5 million followers.
Bottega did not return a request for comment, but a tweet from the fashion publication A Magazine Curated By suggested that this was intentional, rather than a social-media intern’s worst nightmare. “What’s missing from 2021? @BottegaVeneta is,” the tweet (since deleted) read, adding that the brand’s creative director, Daniel Lee, debuted the brand’s spring 2021 collection a few weeks ago with a private, socially distanced viewing in London, Lee’s home base. (The brand itself is based in Italy, and has mostly shown in Milan since Lee took the reins in October 2019.)
At the start of a new year, when many people resolve to spend less time online, forgo alcohol or other vices, exercise more, or generally improve their lives, what’s so shocking about a fashion brand going dark? Lots, it turns out. Brands, as much as they may hate to admit it, are not people—and in these unprecedented times, they have become more reliant than ever on social media to promote and circulate their new collections, advertising campaigns, and other marketing initiatives. Nearly every fashion brand, from Chanel and Balenciaga to Evan Kinori and Ziggy Chen, has some kind of online presence. (Even the handmade clothing savant Paul Harnden has an Instagram account!) Indeed, most have spent the last few years expanding their reach into platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and even Cash App. Others have found a new sense of creative expression by continuing to debut their collections via social media—as the pandemic shows little sign of subsiding, what seemed like a one-off format has become a newly essential medium.
And Bottega Veneta in particular has used social media to impressive effect in the 15 months since Lee joined the house. Its jumbo-sized boots, bubbly-intrecciato bags and sandals, and supersized leather ready-to-wear make intuitive visual sense on an iPhone screen, and the brand’s marketing plan anticipated (or perhaps precipitated!) the merging of fashion industry insiders and straight-up influencers—032c fashion editor Marc Goehring and MyTheresa fashion director Tiffany Hsu were some of the first “celebrities” seen in Lee’s designs, but so were the Olsen twins. A fan account exists simply to track the brand’s visual output. While Lee—a protege of the ultra-private Phoebe Philo—doesn’t have a personal account, he posed shirtless for Juergen Teller for the September issue of Cultured Magazine, suggesting a certain ease with our valiant new age of public portraiture. (Within the fashion industry, the Bottega Question has become a topic of great debate: it’s been something of a culture shock to see the originators of no-logo one-percenter clothes making pieces like the monster stomper Puddle Boots, which are the loudest, most must-have rain boots in history.)
The idea of a billion-dollar brand existing without social media is titillatingly original. Perhaps the Bottega deletion is the ultimate act of stealth luxury—it will now be a brand that travels strictly by word of mouth. If only the fans of a brand are posting about it, perhaps it will move like a secret throughout the industry, with It items popping up organically, by dint of consumer taste (imagine that!), instead of beaming down like a mandate from the corporate account.
The Bottega Veneta “careers” subsite offers a final clue. Over a month ago, the brand posted a listing for a global social media manager. Is this a digital cleansing in preparation for a new regime? Or is 2021’s hot new social media strategy going totally off the grid? Whatever the answer, you probably won’t find it on Instagram.
