The Next Big Bottega Bag? Richard Scarry's 'Busytown'
Bottega Veneta is very much in the business of it-bags. There is perhaps no single luxury item more indicative of Bottega Veneta's exquisite sense of style than its classic Cassette and shapely Knot.
But forget all that: The next big — and I mean big in terms of physical size — Bottega Veneta bag is a book. Richard Scarry's Busytown, to be precise.
Yes, inexplicably tucked under a model's arm in Bottega's sumptuous Pre-Spring (or Resort) 2025 collection, there lies an intrecciato-woven leather-wrapped iteration of Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever!
Bottega recreated the entire dust jacket in its signature layered leather, down to the cover's rendering of Busytown OG Lowly Worm, the agonizingly adorable worm who drives around Busytown in his little apple-shaped car.
Busytown in general is one of those concepts that's so outrageously sweet and adorable that it's almost painful to revisit as a cynical adult.
Why does it pain the heart to see all these cute little guys happily toiling away all their lives? I think it's their perpetual cheer — whether it's the earnest smile of self-actualization or the rictus grin of an indentured worker embracing their fate, though, that's your call.
I think it's pretty darn adorable, myself.
And the Busytown book is objectively endearing within the context of the Bottega collection, with its A$AP Rocky-level suiting and sumptuous accessories, which include the typical assortment of ludicrously slick leather handbags.
The Busytown book is just one of many intrecciato examples, though it's certainly the oddest artistic cosign imaginable for a label typically more comfortable in the auspicious company of creatives like Gaetano Pesce.
Still, this level of quirk is not entirely left-field for Bottega, either. The luxury label often slips some knowingly cheeky fare into its seasonal lineups — consider Spring/Summer 2025's leather jorts, for instance.
