TO NEW BEGINNINGS

One was hailed as “the most famous fashion designer you’ve never heard”. The other is so famous he goes by a nickname. The latest recruits in fashion’s musical chairs of design honchos sent pulses racing even before their first collections hit the runways. MATTHIEU BLAZY AT BOTTEGA VENETA

Following the surprise split with creative director Daniel Lee, Bottega Veneta handed the reins over to second-in-command Matthieu Blazy, much to fashion insiders’ support. His highly anticipated debut showed a confident, clean break from the recent past in his wish to “reconnect the brand with its Italian pedigree” by accentuating emotion and handcraft over “obsession with technology and newness”.

The 69 looks appear approachable, but they are more intriguing than pictures suggest – the tank top, jeans and shirt of the first two looks are surprisingly made of supple nubuck. Both models carried the Kalimero bag, handwoven in one piece without any seams, which anchors the collection. Bottega Veneta’s expertise in bags led Blazy to think about movement. “You’re going somewhere with a bag,” he points out. “I like the idea of luxury in motion.”

Backs of shirts and outerwear are curved, while flared trousers are cut higher at the front and lower at the back as leather fringes swayed under leather dirndls, all insinuating forward motion. Blazy cited Umberto Boccioni’s 1913 Futurist sculpture, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, of a bronze man captured in mid-movement as an inspiration. But it’s also an allusion of the dynamic energy that keeps Bottega Veneta’s momentum going, a refinement in progress mirrored by the current inside-out renovation of the historic 19th-century Palazzo San Fedele, that will house the company’s new headquarters.

NIGO AT KENZO

Streetwear pioneer Nigo takes up the greatest challenge of his 30-year career as he slips into the driver’s seat at Kenzo after former artistic director Felipe Oliveira Baptista’s tenure ended. The first Japanese designer to front the brand since its founder Kenzo Takada, his debut collection unfolded in Galerie Vivienne, the same mosaic-floored, 19th-century arcade where Takada set up his Jungle Jap shop and staged his inaugural fashion show in 1970, the year Nigo was born.

The debut reveals a meeting between influences from Nigo’s life and Takada’s legacy, particularly his early work. Nigo sets out to redefine traditional dress codes as simply real-to-wear, a Japanesewestern mix of tailoring and workwear for women and men. Currently an Aka-e pottery student, Nigo modernises Japanese potters’ workwear, namely the samue (two-piece outfit consisting of a jacket and pants) and the hanten (wrapped jacket evocative of the kimono), even adapting master potter Fujimura Shuji’s hand-painted sketches of florals characterised by curling calligraphic strokes and the occasional tiger, a nod to Kenzo’s emblematic feline insignia.

The signature Poppy graphic is also not forgotten – Nigo’s refresh scatters it across breezy separates or features one on its own on smart-looking workwear. Accompanying his new collection is new music, featuring an exclusive preview of his upcoming album I Know Nigo, the first he’s released under his name in nearly 20 years.