Kering announces that Daniel Lee has quit Bottega Veneta

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Nov 10, 2021

The Kering luxury group announced Wednesday evening that Daniel Lee has abruptly quit his position as creative director of Bottega Veneta after just three years at the helm. No successor has been named.

The highly unexpected development comes just 15 days after Lee presented the latest Bottega Veneta collection to significant acclaim in Detroit, an unheard-of setting historically for a major catwalk show.
 
During his tenure, Bottega enjoyed a major creative and commercial recovery after the house had suffered declines in sales in the final years of the tenure of his predecessor Tomas Maier.

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A soft-spoken Englishman, Lee immediately won critical raves for his revival of BV, most notably for his uber-sized version of the house’s signature intreccio leather, after joining the Italian brand on July 1, 2018.
 
“My time at Bottega Veneta has been an incredible experience. I am grateful to have worked with an exceptional and talented team and I am forever thankful to everyone who was part of creating our vision. Thank you to Francois-Henri Pinault for his support, and for the opportunity to be part of Bottega Veneta’s story,” said Lee in a press release, referring to the CEO of Kering.
 
Besides Bottega Veneta, Kering also owns Gucci, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent. The giant French luxury conglomerate added that a new creative organization for Bottega “will be announced soon.”

 “I am very grateful to Daniel for having brought his passion and energy to Bottega Veneta. His singular vision made the House’s heritage relevant for today and put it back to the center of the fashion scene. I would like to personally thank him for the unique chapter that he has written in the long history of Bottega Veneta,” added Pinault in the release.
 
His departure will spark huge speculation about the motifs behind the move, doubly so as Lee had won a legion of admirers for his chic yet cerebral style; pathbreaking media approach and novel approach to shows.
 
Though he did cause an uproar after one show in Berlin, where only pals of the designer were invited to see the collection inside a nightclub, before his guests all danced without masks at the height of the pandemic in the city’s Soho House. The images provoked a storm of opprobrium on social media.

“I would like to thank Daniel for his dedication to the house over the past three years. He provided Bottega Veneta with a fresh perspective and a new sense of modernity, while remaining respectful of the brand’s fifty-year heritage. The remarkable growth of the brand over the last three years bears testimony to the success of his creative work,” concluded Leo Rongone, CEO of Bottega Veneta.
 
Now Rongone has a new project – finding a replacement for Lee.