Bottega Veneta gave its Milan Fashion Week guests an unusual place to sit, with artist Illya Goldman Gubin turning cardboard packing boxes into one-of-a-kind stools by physically crushing and shaping them.
The seats appeared at Bottega Veneta's Summer 2027 show in Milan on 26 September, where guests including Jacob Elordi, Julianne Moore, Solange and Tyler, the Creator sat among rows of white, dented boxes. Each seat was made from cardboard before being strengthened with fibreglass and epoxy resin.
But the unusual shapes soon inspired a much funnier theory online. One viral post claimed the artist had hugged each box with a different level of force depending on his affection for the guest, leading another user to joke, 'Imagine if ur box is perfect 😭'.
Why the Seats Looked Hugged
The crushed look was not an accident. Goldman Gubin told Architectural Digest Italia that every stool gets its shape through physical pressure, allowing the cardboard itself to help decide what the finished piece will look like.
The Ukrainian-born, Berlin-based artist has been developing his 'Karton Hocker' works since 2020, with the first presentation taking place in 2021. He takes cardboard, a material normally used for packing and shipping and strengthens it with resin and fibreglass until it becomes strong enough to work as furniture.
That process means no two seats are exactly alike. ELLE described the stools as having been slightly crushed by the artist's embrace, while Architectural Digest explained that their different shapes come from the physical process used to deform each box.
Were Hugs Based on Affection?
A post circulating online claimed each box was hugged with a different intensity 'depending on the affection he has for the guest', but available reporting does not confirm that Goldman Gubin made individual stools according to how much he liked particular people.
tHe guests at Bottega sat on cardboard boxes made rigid with resin. bUt all of them had a different shape. Because the designer hugged each box with a different intensity depending on the affection he has for the guest. Genius and poetic. A physical representation of his embrace pic.twitter.com/bsrJ2FlFZc
— lyas (@lyasssssss) September 26, 2026
In his Architectural Digest interview, Goldman Gubin explained that imperfection is an important part of his work. He said he tries not to decide exactly how an object should look before making it, instead allowing the material and the physical process to shape the final result.
There is also no indication in the interview that specific stools were assigned shapes according to his feelings about Jacob Elordi, Julianne Moore, Tyler, the Creator or other guests. The 'affection' explanation should therefore be treated as an unverified viral interpretation rather than a confirmed part of the artwork.
Cardboard Became Fashion Week Furniture
The stools were part of a much larger artistic set for creative director Louise Trotter's Summer 2027 collection. Bottega Veneta placed a handmade leather flower on every seat, with tulips, peonies and lilies adding small touches of colour to the otherwise white space.
The show also included a site-specific sound installation by German artist Florian Hecker, built around 20 suspended structures with loudspeakers and steel reflectors. British artist Mark Leckey provided the soundtrack for the runway itself.
Trotter's collection explored the transition between seasons, moving from the protection associated with winter towards the lighter feeling of spring and summer.
The stools added another layer of transformation to the show, turning a cheap and familiar packing material into furniture strong enough to support the guests. What the available evidence does not show is that the amount of crushing revealed exactly how much Goldman Gubin liked whoever was sitting on top of it.
