Bottega Veneta denies it's destocking after Daniel Lee items spotted at TK Maxx

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 7, 2021

Bottega Veneta has denied destocking inventory created under its now-departed creative chief Daniel Lee after items appeared on the rails of TJX’s UK discount retail chain TK Maxx.

The company said it doesn’t supply its products to discount resellers and that it’s looking into how the items were accessed by the retailer.

The items at the chain (now all but sold out) come from the first two seasons of Lee’s tenure at the label. He was originally appointed in mid-2018, but a surprise announcement last month said he’d quit the company. Lee had been credited with driving a turnaround at the brand for owner Kering. The destocking story was originally reported by WWD.

Upscale labels control their stock very carefully and do all they can to keep it out of the hands of discounters. That’s especially the case for labels like Bottega Veneta that avoid discounts in general. But the risk is always there that items will end up at retail stores not officially authorised to sell them by the label and the unique circumstances of the pandemic mean there's a lot of stock out there in the world that remained unsold over the past 18 months.

After Lee’s exit, the brand quickly named Paris-born Matthieu Blazy as its new creative chief, promoting him from his existing role of RTW Design Director. He started his fashion career as men’s designer for Raf Simons, before joining Maison Martin Margiela to design the ‘Artisanal’ line and the women’s RTW show. In 2014, he became senior designer at Céline, before working again with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein from 2016 to 2019. He was appointed RTW Design Director at Bottega Veneta in 2020.