At Bottega Veneta’s Summer 2027 runway show, guests like Julianne Moore, Tyler, The Creator, and Jacob Elordi found themselves seated on crumpled cardboard boxes transformed into art. The unconventional seating was part of a custom installation by Ukrainian artist Illya Goldman Gubin, commissioned by creative director Louise Trotter.
Goldman Gubin’s “Karton Hocker” series, which he began in 2020, involves physically shaping ordinary corrugated boxes into unique stools. Each box is crushed by hand, then infused with fiberglass and coated in transparent epoxy resin, preserving its creases and imperfections. The result is a rigid, functional seat that retains the box’s original character, with dents, seams, and even barcodes visible beneath the amber-hued finish.
The artist explained to ELLE Decor, “The body becomes a tool for shaping the medium, and something we once carried can now carry us.” At Bottega’s show in Milan’s Fabbrica Orobia, hundreds of these stools were arranged in rows, offering a tactile contrast to the spare, brightly lit set.
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Bottega Veneta added its own touch of luxury, placing a single handcrafted leather flower, a ruffled parrot tulip, an open peony, or a slender lily, on each seat as a gift for guests. Even the invitations reflected the theme, with each one hand-crumpled before mailing, offering a preview of the evening’s unconventional seating.
The cardboard stools brought an unexpected warmth to the event, where a site-specific sound installation by German artist Florian Hecker filled the air with textured frequencies. As guests settled onto their crumpled seats, each clutching their leather flower, the fusion of humble materials and haute craftsmanship became a defining element of Trotter’s vision.
This isn’t the first time Bottega Veneta has made waves with its runway seating. Previous shows featured one-of-a-kind resin stools by Gaetano Pesce, animal-shaped leather beanbags, and hand-blown Murano glass chairs, each designed to be as memorable as the collection itself.