Matthieu Blazy’s Joy Ride Also Played at Bottega Veneta. Just Ask A$AP Rocky

A$AP ROCKY x CARRIE MAE WEEMS x BOTTEGA VENETA

The Anne of Carversville posting process always includes a quick IG trip through the key creatives producing the work. We often find new connections about the people involved, as happened this week with A$AP Rocky and his baby daughter Rocki covering ‘The LOVE Issue’ of W Magazine China Vol 4, September 2026, wearing an abundance of Chanel.

Stylist Matthew Henson outfitted father and daughter — and not for the first time. In the case of Rocky Mayers and Matthew Henson, they go way back to a 2012 cover for Complex Magazine, where Henson styled the rapper, in the company of designer Jeremy Scott. Mayers was not impressed with Henson’s work, the stylist recalled in a 2017 interview with the New York Times [link gifted].

In fact, Rocky told Henson he didn’t work with a regular stylist because he found them lacking in understanding his own view of himself. Those days are long gone, and today Henson not only styles the rapper regularly. He’s deeply embedded in the bottomless well of Black talent and Black community.

Going through the AOC process I described above last Christmas, shortly after A$AP Rocky became a Chanel ambassador and the word Joy had become a key search word for Chanel and Blazy individually, I discovered Blazy’s Bottega Veneta ‘Portraits of Fatherhood’ campaign, presented with Rocky in June 2024.

For Many Creatives of Color, Being a Good Father Is Serious Business

The portrayal of fatherhood in communities of color is a highly-sensitive topic generally. Among celebrities and successful men generally — from Jay-Z to Pharrell and onto Lebron James and Rocky Mayers — these men have made their children a priority. When they invite any creative into a space that includes their kids, that creative must possess empathy and respect for the communities they represent.

Blazy’s ‘Portraits of Fatherhood’ campaign with Mayers, presented in June 2024, and shot at the family home in Harlem, revealed this deep respect.

The degree of tenderness and love expressed in these images suggested to AOC that A$AP Rocky’s Ambassador role at Chanel is based on a genuine and shared empathy between Rocky and Mathieu Blazy.

Mayers himself revealed a deep connection with his sons in the Bottega Veneta film shot by legendary artist Carrie Mae Weems [IG]. Until this week, only two images of dad Rocky Mayers in the ‘Portrait of Fatherhood’ Bottega Veneta campaign appeared on AOC.

Thanks to my visit to Matthew Henson’s IG this week, AOC’s cup now runneth over with the sincerity, love and good vibes that define the message about fathers these creatives want to transmit in and around Planet Earth. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. ~ Anne