KNOTTED, NOT STIRRED: Bottega Veneta is placing its cocktail order for the holiday season with the latest installment of Bottega for Bottegas, its annual showcase recognizing craftspeople around the world.
For the 2025 edition, it tapped smaller-scale artisans from three cities that are key to its history — all the while celebrating the aperitivo, a staple of Italian culture and the festive season.
The collection includes two silverplate glasses crafted by Milan’s Ganci Argenterie; sterling silver cocktail sticks with a knot detail designed by Heath Wagoner in New York and a handbound notebook by Paolo Olbi in Venice, conceived to write down drink recipes.
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In particular, Ganci Argenterie is one of the oldest silversmithing workshops in Milan, established in 1926 and now run by the third generation of the Morandino family.
The son of a fisherman, Heath Wagoner is a New York-based silversmith who in 2020 brought together his love of hosting with his background in industrial and jewelry design to create distinctive tableware and barware, often featuring marine motifs.
Born in 1937, Olbi is a Venetian master craftsman in bookbinding and paper production, disciplines in which he blends traditional techniques, attention to detail and decorative patterns drawn from Venetian, Byzantine and Islamic motifs, as well as innovative combinations with marble, ceramics and Murano glass.
Each artisan’s provenance is symbolic for Bottega Veneta. Founded in Vicenza in 1966, the brand has always been deeply connected to the Veneto region and Venice, inheriting its cross-cultural heritage and international mindset. To be sure, the link with New York traces back to 1972, when the company opened its very first store not in Italy but on Madison Avenue, while Milan has become a second home for the brand in the late 1990s when Bottega Veneta decamped its design office from Vicenza in favor of the Italian fashion capital that today still houses its headquarters and hosts its shows.
The Bottega for Bottegas project was introduced in 2021 originally to shine the spotlight on Italian artisans, supporting the country’s storied bottegas and smaller-scale brands across different industries by boosting their visibility on a global scale.
The following installations expanded the reach of the initiative beyond national borders, tapping workshops and studios that share the brand’s dedication to craft worldwide, involving the likes of Vermont woodworker Rockledge Farm Woodworks, Brooklyn ceramicist Franca NYC and a Shanghai pasta-maker Je&Jo, to cite a few.