MILAN — Bottega Veneta is welcoming 2024 by launching its Lunar New Year campaign featuring award-winning actress and brand ambassador Shu Qi.
Under the creative direction of Matthieu Blazy, the film is Bottega Veneta’s fourth collaboration with Chinese director Jess Jing Zou. Titled “The First Sunrise With You,” it celebrates the first dawn of the year for different characters in a variety of urban and panoramic settings.
The director was also behind Bottega Veneta’s Lunar New Year campaign in 2023, “Reunion in Motion,” which included a moving train that made a month-long journey across China, and two films celebrating Qixi, China’s Valentine’s Day: “Love in Motion” and “Towards You.”
With photography by Ken Ngan and a bespoke track from Sega Bodega, “The First Sunrise With You” carries forward similar themes of travel and togetherness.
Qi opens the film, stepping out onto a balcony at sunrise in Shanghai. This is followed by images of a group of friends gathering on the beach or riding scooters on a mountain road, all meeting at dawn — symbolic of a new beginning and the transition into 2024.
A mother-daughter duo — model Chen Estelle and her own mother — walk along the riverside by the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai.
Bottega Veneta spotlights exclusive designs from the Chinese New Year capsule collection, themed around the Year of the Dragon, from the Andiamo, Sardine and Orbit sneakers to a bespoke Jodie bag with a dragon-tail handle.
Qi was tapped by the Italian brand as its global ambassador last October, as reported.
In this role, Qi, who also attended the Kering-owned brand’s spring 2024 show in Milan in September, fronted a first campaign released in October and photographed by Sander Muylaert.
Qi was the second talent to join the Bottega Veneta family as ambassador under the creative direction of Blazy, following the appointment of BTS pop star Kim Nam-joon, better known as RM, last March.
With a career spanning almost three decades, Qi has delivered standout performances in both box-office hits and cult arthouse films. She had roles in “Millennium Mambo,” “Three Times” and “The Assassin,” all directed by acclaimed film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, which all made it to the Cannes Film Festival.
Her accolades include three Hong Kong Film Awards; two Golden Horse Awards for best actress; best actress at the Shanghai Film Critics’ Awards; best actress at the Huabiao Awards, and best actress at the Asian Film Festival.
In 2022, Bottega Veneta took over part of the Great Wall to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. The message of “Happy New Year” was written in Chinese, together with the company’s logo, displayed in shades of the brand’s signature green and tangerine, which is a symbol of luck in Mandarin, on a sloped portion of the Great Wall.
Together with this installation, the Italian brand pledged a donation to support the renovation and maintenance of the Shanhai Pass, the starting point of the eastern end of the Great Wall. Historically, this pass is known as the “first pass under heaven.”
