Bottega Veneta Bags A Winner

As good as the Milan collections for spring 2003 were — and they were very good — the hands-down winner came from a company that didn't even put on a runway show. With its third collection by Tomas Maier, Bottega Veneta, the leather-goods house famous in the 1970s for its woven bags and the slogan "When your own initials are enough," confirmed expectations that it would be Gucci Group's next successful turnaround. When Gucci bought the company in February 2001, the designers were two British consultants whose attempts to revive the label included products like black catsuits with "BV" in neon...