“I was wearing a really gorgeous lurex green dress, really really gorgeous, and some Swarovski high boots, beautiful jewellery, and then I had a trench coat over the top.”

 

If she could have styled it, the trench coat would not have covered up her beautiful dress. 

 

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On set for the campaign, Gresty described a captivating atmosphere as she sat in hair and makeup watching the model before her, Arca, being photographed—Gresty said she looked beautiful.

 

“Daniel really likes playing loud music, and people were dancing…Arca was dancing, as well, and Nina Cherry and her daughter were modelling, so they were dancing. But I wasn’t.”

 

Daniel’s affinity for music spans beyond curating a vibe on set, commissioning Arca to create an original soundtrack for Bottega’s digital zine, ‘Issue’. Lee informed 032c that his interest in music began at the club.

 

“My formative clubbing experiences began way before I moved to London, back in Bradford and Leeds,” Lee said. “It was an era of hard house and trance. It wasn’t that I particularly loved the music – it was more that the club was a core part of this liberating experience.”

 

Translating this inspiration to the runway, Daniel staged his controversial SS21 “Salon 02” show at Berghain in Berlin during the pandemic’s height. Antics aside, the runway—set on a luxurious turquoise carpet—featured some of the brand’s most intricate and creative designs yet, including glass beaded knitwear as both dresses and bags, a large tote made to look like a balloon sculpture, and the unveiling of a feather-poked textile that would become a recurring staple for the brand. 

 

The preceding SS22 runway was staged at the Michigan Building in Detroit, an iconic ex-nightclub venue. Soundtracked by Detroit legend Moodymann, models walked onto the stark white dance floor wearing a vibrant mix of colours with heavy beading and glistening sequins, reminiscent of techno futurism and performance art observed in a local club environment—and Arca’s performances.

 

Bottega’s investment in subversion is practically rooted in its identity, beginning under Tomas Maier’s creative direction from 2001 to 2018, as he built the brand’s identity around community and collaboration. According to Tim Blanks, Maier appointed “different artists to interpret his work, dozens of perspectives that would eventually make sense as a single body of work.” These collaborators were not just artists, but innovators shifting the cultural mindset around fashion presentation—candid fashion photographer Juergen Teller and SHOWStudio’s Nick Knight, to name a few.

 

This mentality of collaboration—an innate sense to connect with friends, muses, and peers—has solidified Bottega Veneta’s relevance in pop culture, and is exactly what Lee sought to do in his four years at the brand.

 

As Central Saint Martins' BA Fashion Knit Pathway Leader since 2006, and current BA Fashion Course Leader, Gresty has watched the careers of her students soar, but Daniel Lee was special. 

 

“He really understands the value of creativity over conforming…When he selected the knitwear designer [Phoebe Kime] on the team, they really pushed the boundaries in terms of technique and creativity and colour palettes…Just an appreciation for craft because he came from a knit background.”

 

Sarah says her and Daniel never fell out of communication following his graduation from CSM in 2011, inviting her to many of his runway shows. Fashion is indisputably intertwined with the social fabric of its artistic collaborators, it’s a matter of whether or not a brand truly embraces its muses, and Bottega does.