Founded by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro in 1966, Bottega Veneta is a luxury leather goods designer and manufacturer based in Northeastern Italy, in Vicenza. The company was acquired by Gucci in 2001, since then being a subsidiary of Gucci Group. The line of handbags, shoes and belts that made Bottega Veneta famous was the Intrecciato woven leather. This leather goods line is still in vogue today, but models are, of course, different than the original ones. The Bottega Veneta Ready-to-Wear clothing collection was introduced by the British designer Giles Deacon, and it was the company’s first step on the way of claiming their position in the luxury segment of the fashion ware market. After Gucci bought the company, they appointed the German designer Tomas Maier creative director for the leather goods division.

The fashion design company has boutiques in Italy, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Kuwait, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.

Bottega Veneta managed to capture so many hearts (and wallets) with their simple yet elegant line, with their light-toned natural colors and with their obsession for detail. One of the noticeable features is that they label their bags on the inside, not on the outside like most handbags designers do. Celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman are among Bottega Veneta’s clients.

Bottega Veneta Bags for Spring Summer 2010

The Spring-Summer 2010 season brings a lot of color and amazing combinations that make decisions very hard to make when one wants to buy only one-two purses. Many of these new handbags are so cute that choice is really hard to make. This new collection uses a lot the intreciatto details leather that made Bottega Veneta famous, as in the following purses:

• Cigar Gladiola Yolk Intrecciato Acquarello (color combination of yellow, purple, brown; price: $1750)
• Orchid Intrecciato Nappa Bag (color: purple; price: $980)
• Paille Shiny Calf Cabat (color: paille; price: $7800 – available only with pre-order)
• Orchid Paille Intreccio Sfrangiato Nappa Aquatre Bag (color combination: purple with paille accents; price: $3250)
• Cigar Ivory Moro Tie-Dye Nappa Umbria Bag (colors: brown and ivory; price: $7850)

Other handbags feature other interesting leather patterns, like this Cigar Origami Plume Leather Tejus bag which really looks like a big brown origami. However, at $8500, it can’t be just origami made of Japanese paper, it has to contain some damn fine leather.

This new collection of bags and purses from Bottega Veneta features also a series of crocodile leather bags. They are interesting, but one can’t buy them online for two reasons. First, they can be bought only with pre-order (that’s good for the crocodiles, not to be killed if there’s no real interest in these purses). Second, I doubt people are willing to pay online amounts that exceed $20,000. I’m not yet prepared to spend that on a bag, but if I were, I’d go to the brick and mortar shop to make the payment.