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Steve McQueen’s sound installation 66-76-26, featuring Nina Simone and David Bowie singing “Wild Is the Wind,” is on view at the Guggenheim Bilbao. The same recording was used for Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2026 show, extending a relationship with the brand that Highsnobiety traces through McQueen’s clothing choices and creative style.
Steve McQueen’s sound installation 66-76-26 at the Guggenheim Bilbao has a direct connection to Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection: the work’s musical pairing of Nina Simone and David Bowie singing “Wild Is the Wind” also served as the collection’s show soundtrack. The overlap connects the artist and filmmaker’s current work with a fashion house whose clothes he has worn in recent years.
As described by Highsnobiety’s Chris Erik Thomas, 66-76-26 brings together Simone’s 1966 recording and Bowie’s 1976 version of “Wild Is the Wind.” The voices are heard across a shadowy exhibition space at the Guggenheim Bilbao, creating a dialogue between performances recorded a decade apart. McQueen orchestrated the sound installation; it was not created solely as a fashion-show score.
The same pairing was used for Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2026 show, the first collection by creative director Louise Trotter. Highsnobiety reports that McQueen had already worn the brand during 2024, when Matthieu Blazy was leading it. The shared soundtrack brings McQueen’s art into the collection’s presentation, while his prior appearances in the clothes provide a separate link to the label.
Thomas’s report places the connection within McQueen’s evolving personal style. He points to McQueen’s outfit at the 1999 Turner Prize ceremony, including a tan blazer with an orange grid and a white shirt, as an early example of his attention to tailoring and silhouette. Later, McQueen has worn labels including Zegna, Craig Green and Yohji Yamamoto. The report characterizes his approach as more restrained over time, while retaining a focus on precise shape and distinctive texture.
The pairing matters because it links a work of contemporary art to a major fashion collection through the same carefully arranged musical material. It is more than a celebrity appearance or a brand association: McQueen’s installation and the runway presentation use the Simone-Bowie pairing to frame different experiences of time, memory and emotion. That shared element gives the Bilbao work an immediate connection to the fashion show without making the two projects identical.
Highsnobiety also reads the pairing as a fit between McQueen’s personal style and Trotter’s direction for Bottega. The report describes the collection as softer and more wearable than a highly conceptual approach, and sees a similar balance in McQueen’s preference for clothes that are structured yet functional. That is an editorial interpretation of the relationship, not a stated design brief from either McQueen or Trotter.
For readers following both fashion and art, the story offers a concrete example of how a creative work can move between settings: a sound installation in a museum and a soundtrack for a runway show. It also places Bottega’s new collection in the context of an artist whose work and public dress have developed over decades.
Bottega Veneta Spring Summer 2026 collection
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McQueen’s Style Over Time
Highsnobiety’s “Artist Uniform” column examines how personal style can become part of an artist’s identity. In this report, Thomas traces McQueen’s clothes from the 1999 Turner Prize ceremony through later appearances in designers’ work. The column notes that his fashion choices have varied, but argues that tailoring, silhouette and a deliberate use of texture recur across those changes.
McQueen is also known for directing films including Shame and the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. Thomas connects the visual restraint of those films with McQueen’s approach to clothing, while citing his interest in long takes and images that remain with an audience. The article quotes McQueen describing those images as “like paintings.” This background helps explain why a sound work that layers two versions of one song can be read as consistent with his wider practice.
The Bottega relationship predates Trotter’s first collection. According to the report, McQueen wore the label during Blazy’s 2024 tenure; the Spring/Summer 2026 soundtrack pairing now makes the association visible in the collection’s presentation as well.
“I wanted to heighten people’s emotions, to make them more sensitive to the clothes.”
— Steve McQueen, in a statement released by Bottega Veneta
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What the Collaboration Does Not Confirm
The source report establishes that the installation and fashion show share the same musical pairing, and that McQueen wore Bottega during 2024. It does not establish that McQueen designed the clothes, shaped the collection, or has a formal ongoing partnership with the house. Neither does the report provide a statement from Trotter describing how the soundtrack was selected or how directly the collection drew on McQueen’s work.
The claim that McQueen was “a Bottega guy before Bottega knew it” is the article’s framing of a stylistic affinity, not a documented account of when the house first recognized or acted on that connection. The available information also does not specify how long 66-76-26 will be on view in Bilbao or whether the soundtrack will accompany future presentations of the collection.
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The Work and Collection in View
The immediate development is the presentation of 66-76-26 at the Guggenheim Bilbao alongside the public attention around Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection. The installation gives visitors a chance to encounter the Simone-Bowie pairing as a standalone work, while the runway soundtrack situates it within Trotter’s first collection for the house.
Further details about any continuing relationship between McQueen and Bottega, or the installation’s run and future presentations, were not provided in the report. For now, the confirmed link is the shared soundtrack, set against McQueen’s reported history of wearing the label and the stylistic connection Highsnobiety draws between his clothes and the collection.
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Key Questions
What is Steve McQueen’s 66-76-26?
66-76-26 is a sound installation by Steve McQueen at the Guggenheim Bilbao. It brings together Nina Simone’s 1966 and David Bowie’s 1976 recordings of “Wild Is the Wind.”
How is the installation connected to Bottega Veneta?
The same Simone-Bowie pairing used in the installation also served as the soundtrack to Bottega Veneta’s Spring/Summer 2026 show, the first collection by creative director Louise Trotter.
Has McQueen worked with Bottega Veneta before?
Highsnobiety reports that McQueen appeared in Bottega Veneta clothing during 2024, when Matthieu Blazy led the house. The report does not describe a formal design collaboration.
Did Steve McQueen design the Spring/Summer 2026 collection?
The source report does not say that McQueen designed or co-designed the collection. It confirms the use of his sound work as the show’s soundtrack and notes his prior appearances in Bottega clothing.
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