One evening in early December 2019, Daniel Lee, the carrot-topped, newish designer of the Italian luxury brand Bottega Veneta, went to the Fashion Awards in London to see how his brand had fared.
Mr. Lee, who was 33 at the time had been at Bottega for only about a year and a half; he was the youngest and newest designer in the Kering stable. He had never been to a fashion awards ceremony, but he was nominated in four categories.
Then Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the model who was presenting the brand of the year award, announced:
“The winner is … Bottega Veneta.”
Mr. Lee was so excited he ran up to the stage and left his speech at the table. That turned out to be OK, though, because he had a second chance, when he won accessories designer of the year. He thanked his team, assumed he was done and thought he could relax. But then came the British designer of the year award, women’s wear. Won by Daniel Lee. And then the designer of the year award. Won by Daniel Lee.
After all, no designer had ever won four awards in one night at the event.
Having studied at Central Saint Martins (and counted the esteemed Louise Wilson as a tutor), Lee gained experience working at Maison Margiela, Donna Karan and Balenciaga, before joining Céline in 2012, where he worked under creative director Phoebe Philo as the director of ready-to-wear. It is impossible not to compare his overwhelming success to her's and to wonder if he might now be dressing that ‘Old Céline’ customer with his cool but understated, elegant designs at the ‘New Bottega’.
He wanted to be a dancer, thanks to his grandmother (she is 87 and still goes to Pilates once a week), but then he discovered he had flat feet, and anyway, he was pretty academic. His parents — a mechanic and a secretary — had expected him “to do something like law or medicine.” He kind of stumbled into design after deciding he wanted to move to London.
“Bottega was a bit of a sleeping giant.”
"Bottega, the way I look at it, is very much about the project and the work. It’s not about me as a person. I think we really work very much as a team here. The biggest thing for me about fashion: It’s about people. So take that any way you’d like. It can be people in a movie, people in the street. It’s a collage of many different influences."
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