Don't Judge a Perfume by Its Bottle — Except When It's Bottega Veneta
The fresh whiff of Italy’s world-famous basil, the distinct earthy aroma of high-end vegetable-tanned leather, a stracciatella gelato’s milky vanilla base punctuated with flakes of creamy chocolate… this is what Italy smells like. Don’t believe me? Ask Bottega Veneta.
The Italian fashion house’s second fragrance collection, Alta, expands on its five-piece perfume debut from 2024 with a ten-piece range of eau de parfums blending classic Italian scents with unexpected smells from around the world.
And as with Bottega’s original perfumes, the beauty of the bottle is as impressive as the inventiveness of the scents.
Alta’s intercontinental exploration includes balancing the brightness of blood orange, found in the gardens of the Bottega’s Venetian atelier, with the depth of North African neroli, an essential oil distilled from the bitter orange tree, and offsetting the clean powdery notes of Italian bathing talc against the earthiness of Oceania sandalwood.
The idea stems from Bottega Veneta’s most famous technique, “intrecciato” leather weaving which forms the majority of its bags but is also used on everything from leather T-shirts to deck shoes. In fact, it's so popular that some of the world’s biggest footwear brands, including adidas and Timberland, are all giving their shoes the Bottega intrecciato effect.
Each Alta fragrance weaves together different cultures just as Bottega weaves together its leather. And, naturally, it comes in an intrecciato bottle, where glass appears woven and is topped off through a gold ring and wooden cap.
It’s a more classic look compared to Bottega’s original fragrances, where the glass bottle was intentionally misshapen with bumps and curves inspired by Venetian glassblowing, but the added texture of crisscrossed glass mixed with the wooden lid is equally pretty. You shouldn’t judge a perfume by its bottle, but there’s no harm in admiring its beauty.
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