Back in January, the luxury Italian fashion brand brought their relationship with social media to a halt. With COVID-19 hitting luxury brands particularly hard, many of them are finding new ways to reach audiences.
Bottega Veneta’s creative director, Daniel Lee, decided to do this with a quarterly digital magazine called Issue.
“Social media represents the homogenization of culture,” Lee told the Guardian before the launch of the magazine. “Everyone sees the same stream of content. A huge amount of thought goes into what I do, and social media oversimplifies it,” says Lee.
Bottega Veneta might have made a splash considering their very creative and unique alternative to social media, but it doesn’t seem like too many other luxury brands are far behind.
According to a survey done by Forbes Magazine, social media is grossly underperforming when it comes to selling luxury products. “Only 30% of luxury companies using Instagram said it is ‘very effective.’ Facebook’s ‘very effective’ measure is about half that,” Forbes reports.
Rather than taking up a couple of spots in your Instagram feed, Bottega Veneta’s digital magazine captures your full attention with trippy images and videos of their clothing and accessories being twisted into balloon art or turned into stone. There are men hopping buildings and Missy Elliot laying down lyrics.
Issue shows a particularly playful side to the brand that exudes luxury in every aspect. With its eye-catching displays and new approach, it has already made waves in the fashion industry and maybe even provides inspiration to other digital magazines.
