Kering has announced the creative director of Bottega Veneta, Tomas Maier, will depart the role he had held for 17 years.

"It's largely due to Tomas's high-level creative demands that Bottega Veneta became the house it is today. He put it back on the luxury scene and made it an undisputed reference," said François-Henri Pinault, chief executive and chairman of Kering. "I am deeply grateful to him and I personally thank him for the work he accomplished, and for the exceptional success he helped to achieve."

In 2001, the designer was appointed creative director of Bottega Veneta, a Kering-owned, Italian fashion house best known for leather goods produced with an artisanal weaving process called intrecciato. Under Maier’s lead, Bottega Veneta passed $1 billion in sales in 2012, becoming Kering’s second-largest luxury label after Gucci and its fastest-growing.