A$AP Rocky is as good as married to Rihanna, with whom he has two kids. But that hasn't stopped Rocky from kicking up a torrid love affair with luxury label Bottega Veneta, a relationship that has mutated from furtive dalliance into a hot 'n heavy romance in full view of the public eye.
Boy, does A$AP Rocky love Bottega Veneta. He wears it to dinner. He wears it while fake-exercising. He wears it to work, he wears it to play. Rocky wears Bottega so much that Rihanna has become a Bottega convert by proxy. Now that's a good-looking throuple.
And the feeling is mutual. As much as A$AP Rocky loves Bottega Veneta, Bottega Veneta loves Rocky right back. Bottega loves Rocky so much, in fact, that its allowed him unfettered access to its unreleased Spring 2024 collection, which he's worn ceaselessly in one of the year's best guerilla fashion campaigns.
This is part of Bottega's brilliant subliminal marketing strategy, wherein the luxury label has been feeding Rocky its Pre-Spring 2024 collection months before its actual release, organically building interest with his excellent outfits.
The thing is, though Bottega Veneta may be one of biggest brands of the now, it's not cruise control to good style.
You must have the panache, the swag, to make the understated Italian label look not merely good but gosh darn great, aspirational enough that even us regular shmucks who can't afford to step inside a Bottega boutique are made to crave maison di Matthieu Blazy.
So who needs a marketing budget when A$AP Rocky's wearing your clothes?
Rocky's Bottega renaissance began in mid-2023, when his fairly preppy dad style evolved into pure Italiano opulence.
Whereas Rocky was once content to merely yuppie it up in crisp overcoats and loafers, even his most uncomplicated looks are engorged with Bottega goodness. Every urbane Rocky outfit is now a semi-subtle Bottega billboard — as subtle as neon leather trench coats are, that is.
But, really, most of Rocky's Bottega flexes are tastefully understated.
Sure, his bubblegum pink Andiamo bag is Bottega at its most deliciously overt but don't let it steal your attention away from his jeans — because they aren't actually jeans. They're Bottega's ingenious trompe l'oeil leather pants and Rocky completes the magic trick by making them look utterly natural.
Oh, there's Rocky out for a jog. Sure seems strange that he's wearing high-top, flat-soled sneakers while frolicking but nothing terribly out of the ordinary, right?
Wrong! That's a never before seen Bottega leather sweatsuit, worn for the first time in public by Rocky in a manner so casual as to seem incidental.
Though the leather hoodie and sweats do admittedly make his jogging attire that much more ridiculous by default — talk about a sweatsuit, amirite folks?! — they also level up the outfit immeasurably.
You know Rocky's got too much taste to step out in a plain grey hoodie, right?
A key touchstone of Rocky's Bottega outfits is in how he downplays their exquisiteness by reframing them as, simply, real clothes. It's an egalitarian approach that allows the look to be more than the sum of its parts.
Rocky blends extravagant items with staples in such a way that a look that could be measured in dollar signs is instead granted value by way of good taste. Call him Professor Rocky 'cuz he's a living masterclass in practiced effortlessness.
Notice how Rocky's shrouds heavyweight Bottega boots with pooled jeans because that's what the look demands.
Bottega isn't even offering these shoes for sale and Rocky's wearing them like they're Docs (and looking all the better for it).
That's another thing about Rocky and Bottega: he gets all the cool stuff weeks if not months before it's released to the wider public, if at all.
His treated leather trench from above, for instance? Not releasing until 2024.
In his most recent music video — a visual accompaniment for the Pharrell-produced "RIOT (Rowdy Pipe'n)" — Rocky wore a pair of Timbs.
Oh, wait, they weren't Timbs but actually a pair of then-unreleased Bottega Veneta boots that looked like ultra-indulgent Timbs only upon closer inspection. Right.
Rocky is, of course, hardly the only famous face wearing Bottega in excess.
Everyone from Kendall Jenner to James Blake is picking up what Blazy is putting down. It's a real Bottega bonanza out there in celeb-world.
But — and I must preface this by saying that I mean this with peace and love — no one is wearing Bottega as well as Rocky.
Rocky's sense of style is demarcated by a raw ease that can't be taught. It comes from confidence and from an innate sense of how to dress.
Realistically, Rocky could thrift everything he wears and look just as good as he does in his luxury goods. But part of the pleasure in seeing him wear Bottega is that you so rarely see people style expensive clothes as they ought to be styled: like clothes.
Whether they're wearing expensive stuff or not, truly stylish people dress with intention, knowingly layering silhouette-shifting outerwear atop figure-shaping mid-layers and relaxed pants that affect an air of ease over shoes that undergird their desired attitude, all seemingly with hardly any effort at all.
The few, the proud, and the incredibly fashionable typically wear deceivingly direct outfits that look great at face value but get better and better as you dive into the thoughtful accents that comprise each look. That's mastery of personal style and A$AP Rocky is its peak.
That Bottega Veneta is currently his brand of choice says a lot about the fashion house and that the fashion house is keen to tap Rocky as an unofficial brand ambassador of sorts says just as much about Rocky. Game recognize game.
