Dolce & Gabbana makes fashion fantasies for world’s wealthiest clients
Dolce & Gabbana celebrates the best of Italian opera and art in its "alta moda" collections in Milan for fashion's point-one-percenters | GALLERY
Turning “impossible dreams” into reality is becoming something of a signature for Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana.
The duo of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana showed their women’s “alta moda” (high fashion) and men’s “alta sartoria” (high tailoring) collections in some of Milan’s most revered locations over the weekend.
“Alta moda, alta sartoria is our freedom,” said Dolce of the collections it has offered since 2012.
With a focus on artisanal craft and luxurious fabrications — and price tags that can run from the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars — the bespoke pieces are aimed at fashion’s “point-one-percenters”.
Renaissance art and Italian opera were fertile inspiration for the designers this season, offering up extravagant results.
Saturday’s men’s collection was presented in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and its adjoining library, an oasis of Renaissance Italian art and learning founded by the Cardinal Federico Borromea in 1609.
The institution and its collection played a leading role in the pieces on show, with many of the artworks seemingly coming to life on the catwalk.
The opening look was a red tiered cape like those seen in paintings of the cardinal on the walls; the second, a tapestry cape featuring Caravaggio’s still life Basket of Fruit. “We take a lot of inspiration from a lot of paintings we have here today,” said Dolce before the show.
“We have some clothes with embroidery, with needlepoint, and we have permission to make exactly the same portrait like the Caravaggio, the Bellini, Leonardo.”
The Portrait of a Gentleman collection included plenty of pieces for peacocking, from rich brocade suiting through to feathered coats, and densely embellished trousers, jackets and tops that recreated the artworks on the surrounding walls.
Accessories included bejewelled gloves, beribboned slippers, tasselled sashes and ruff collars.
The library was acknowledged in silk shirts printed with dusty tomes, while many of the models carried vintage books on the runway.
The earlier women’s alta moda collection was held at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house — an appropriate choice for a collection inspired by 12 Italian operas, including Tosca, La Traviata and Madama Butterfly.
Guests watched the show from the boxes around the theatre, as models in extravagant ensembles walked from the stage on to a red-carpeted catwalk that hovered above the stalls.
Aida was resplendent in gold cape and dress, studded in metal discs and finished in feathers and crystal, while Cio-Cio San from Madama Butterfly wore a frock coat appliqued and embellished with colourful butterflies and flowers.
La Scala artistic director Alexander Pereira joked after the show that the designers should make costumes for its operas, but these pieces are very much designed for those wealthiest of customers to be leading ladies in their own lives.
Glynis Traill-Nash travelled to Milan as a guest of Dolce & Gabbana
Add your comment to this story
Australian Fashion Week brings renewed hope for debuting designers
Following uncertain times for the event, an overhauled schedule offers opportunity for emerging brands to find new audiences at home and abroad.
Wings: an independent force reshaping fashion week
With fewer runways and a shift toward commercial viability, this year’s official Australian Fashion Week has left some designers out in the cold — but a new underground collective is staging a stylish rebellion.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout