“Everyone was making a frame bag. Everyone said you needed to have a hand free to carry your phone and text or whatever. He absolutely went against the trend. He made this soft thing you had to carry instead of your phone. It was a brilliant idea.”
The Pouch was one of the first designs released by Lee, and this oversized leather clutch was seen time and time again on Copenhagen show attendees, particularly in a camel color.
The bag is remarkable in so many ways. For one, it has no straps. In a world of crossbody and saddlebags, to make a strapless bag that one must carry in their hands is as rebellious as it gets.
“I don’t want to be a designer of just hype, but of longevity, so I feel a lot of pressure this year.”
According to Kering’s 2019 annual report, released earlier this month, the Pouch was “the fastest selling bag in Bottega Veneta history.” By September, seemingly all of British Vogue owned one or two Bottega pieces. At the Milan ready-to-wear show later that month, half of the front row was wearing the shoes or carrying a bag.
According to data from Lyst, the global fashion search engine, the Pouch was the fifth “hottest” women’s product in the second quarter of 2019 and is still being searched, on average, 240 times a day. After the September show, searches for Bottega Veneta shoes spiked 156 percent.
Then, there is the fact that the bag is logo-less, a clear rejection of street style. It pivots more toward the classic, the chic vintage era which is popping up.
"[The Pouch] had a tactile, soft, sensual, very photogenic aspect to it," Lee continued. "There was so much dimension, so much depth because of the folds, the creases. And obviously objects that photograph well work today when the internet is such an important tool."
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