Luxury labels launch creative cultural initiatives for these isolation times

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Apr 6, 2020

Following the example of several emerging brands, some luxury labels are busy producing special online content to help people stave off boredom in these gloomy times of isolation. Bottega Veneta is for example featuring a multi-media cultural project called ‘Bottega Residency’, and Salvatore Ferragamo a trivia quiz.
 

The Italian luxury label owned by Kering has launched ‘Bottega Residency’ in order to, in its own words, “share energy, positivity and creativity across the world at these peculiar times of uncertainty, fear and also isolation,” tapping a variety of web platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Weibo, Line, Kakao, Spotify and Apple Music) and dedicating a section of its website to the project.
 
How does it work? Each week, Bottega Veneta is inviting a celebrity close to the label to talk in a short video about the artists whose work has influenced them. This week, Bottega Veneta’s Creative Director Daniel Lee is kicking off the project, talking about British artist David Hockney, film director Steven Spielberg and choreographer Maurice Béjart.

The agenda for every week-end includes live concerts on Fridays, cookery recipes live-streamed by emerging chefs on Saturdays, and a film on Sunday nights. “In these particularly trying times, we feel it is our responsibility to promote these values and offer some joy and hope to our community and beyond,” said Lee in a press release.
 

Salvatore Ferragamo too has introduced an online project, though one with a more playful register. The Florentine label has launched ‘Trivia’, a quiz game that will be broadcast on its Instagram and Facebook accounts every Wednesday and Saturday until April 4.
 
The game features quiz questions and plenty of anecdotes, exploring the label’s past, its signature products, and the defining moments in the life and career of founder Salvatore Ferragamo. Among other things, we learn that Ferragamo’s first major undertaking in Hollywood was to make boots for a cowboy movie. Like Bottega Veneta, the Florentine label is seeking to convey “a message of hope expressed in a new narrative form.”