Bottega Veneta’s Andiamo Tote, made with woven lambskin, retails for $8,000. In the brand’s campaign for the Fall/Winter 2024 collection, a firetruck red edition is seen catching a splash as a model lands two feet down in a muddy puddle.
Creative Director Matthieu Blazy himself was the catalyst for the image, and subsequent leather damage—to the delight of photographer Alec Soth. His first time working with the brand, on its Spring/Summer 2024 campaign, Soth joined Blazy in Tokyo for the shoot. This time, the pair met in arid landscapes across Utah and Nevada with “a caravan” of helpers for an extraterrestrial-tinged shoot playing off Blazy’s own desert inspirations. “I would not have asked for that,” admits Soth of the splashing and other handbag roughhousing. “Matthieu was like, ‘Jump!’”
The collection’s palette is as earthy as its surroundings, building from pale sandy tones to blistering red and oranges. The clothing—apart from a few exaggerated proportions and shocks of color—is restrained by a minimalistic approach that lets Blazy’s tailoring shine. Ahead of the campaign’s debut, Soth joined CULTURED to talk about building a world around Blazy’s inventions, one as sparing with its touchpoints as the clothes themselves.
CULTURED: This is your second collaboration with Bottega. Were you able to be even more ambitious this time around?
Soth: It's such a fascinating group. It has this feeling with Matthieu of being almost like a family unit. I just thought it would be a job, and it's turned into something else really special.
I'm not a fashion photographer. I come from the fine art side of the world. This whole madness of the fashion world, I've dipped my toes into it before but it's a big shocker. I became a photographer so that I could work alone, and then suddenly there were 100 people standing there. This time, I knew who was involved, and I felt much more relaxed with it, and it felt great.
CULTURED: Is the starting point talking to Matthieu about the collection?
Soth: He is the driver. He is the visionary. But he trusts people to play with it, to take it, and to shoot it off in different directions. I feel this added freedom because he's been there both times on set. On this particular shoot, he had this thing about throwing stuff. He would take bags and he would throw them in the air and he really didn't want anyone else to do it because he's like a boy and he wants to have the experience of throwing. I imagine a scenario in which he's not on set and I suddenly have the idea to throw a bag in the air, and everyone would look at me like, “What the fuck, that's like a $10,000 bag?”
CULTURED: I was wondering how Bottega felt about the shot of the bag three inches off the ground while stomping in a puddle.
Soth: Case in point. We shot primarily in these two locations and then we had this day where we're driving between the two locations, and Matthieu said, “Why don't you find a spot between the two?” I'm having to scout on the fly and pick a location and then bring all these people to it within 45 minutes. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself. I found a badass location that no one else would have found. It was wet and messy. I set up and Matthieu says, “Why don't you have him stomp in the puddle?” I would not have asked for that. I was gonna have him stand by it. That's also a little scary because you have to nail it first try. You don't get seconds on that.
CULTURED: Was this scouting just happening looking out the window on the road?
Soth: My personal practice is very research-based. I was on my phone when I found out about the Mormon community that lived in this region right on the border of Utah and Nevada. There was a scandal with this community, and it became abandoned. I saw pictures of these Mormons crossing this semi-dry creek bed, so then I tracked down the location of that.
CULTURED: The shoot has this feeling like these people have just crash-landed. What kind of influences were you pulling in?
Soth: If you're my age, you're carrying around an internal mood board. We also shot in the Southwest, and as an American you carry around internal film history or comic books—the whole thing is in your head.
CULTURED: You only need to have a couple of little touch points. There's this spaceship sculpture in the background, and even that's enough.
Soth: That was a big part of it—not overdoing that. I felt strongly about just touching on it just so you plant that seed. We're going to Area 51, and that's so strong as a location. We have to tone that down just so that it doesn't overwhelm it and they got that. In the zine [based off of the collection], they asked me to do drawings, and they touched on it in funny ways. In my practice, I like to do things that I don't know how to do just so that I can feel refreshed.
CULTURED: Do you feel that helps you come back to photography in a new way, when you've been able to step outside of it?
Soth: Yeah, it's almost a core part of my practice now. I have my personal work, and I have put it under this banner: Little Brown Mushroom. Hopefully, I interject that energy. That's something that I think Matthieu also understands because he does all these crazy side projects, too. And that's a way to re-energize yourself outside of the commercial sphere.
CULTURED: Fashion is seen so much more as a commercial product, but there is a similarity between art and fashion. You're both making a product in some ways.
Soth: If you're in the art world, you realize it's not this pure sphere by any means. Any creative person, you're toiling with this—with commerce, engaging with it, trying to use it in creative ways, and then also trying to separate yourself from it, refresh your thinking.
CULTURED: Does that understanding help you lessen the lines between those worlds? Some people say they explicitly don't want to enter a commercial space.
Soth: The world of the fine arts people I come from would typically get a master's degree, and then their ambition is to go into the teaching world. The people who go that educational route are still contending with money and the frustrations of structure and all that stuff in a different way. We all have to engage, just as human beings, with the commercial world. As an artist, I'm navigating it too. I guess I could be a monk and live in the woods. I don't know the whole culture. I also don't know the world. But now I know Matthieu, and this guy does not suck my soul.
I remember 20 years ago, the first time I did a fashion thing and realized, “Wow, I don't even see what other people are seeing.” Over time, I've learned. I've developed an appreciation of the craftsmanship. I can see these threads of influence and how they work their way into Matthieu's brain because I'm doing something similar in my own work.
CULTURED: Is there anything else you think is important to know about the campaign?
Soth: It’s funny, we didn't talk about the clothes!
