In the Sicilian city of Syracuse, in an illuminated Duomo square, Mariah Carey drew a salvo of flashes and cheers on Saturday night when she appeared before the 600 guests at the Dolce & Gabbana Haute Moda show accompanied by the two designers.
They were dressed in black and the exuberant diva in a mermaid dress printed with colorful tiles: an even restrained
look
if we compare it with the regal striped dress with which actress Helen Mirren had posed minutes before, or with the pants with train flowers and golden bodice of the interpreter Sharon Stone.
Among the public there were unlikely jewels, suits that shone in the sun and spontaneous poses before the baroque facade of the cathedral.
There was even a religious in a bishop's cassock.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mariah Carey (@mariahcarey)
The occasion, the 10th anniversary of Dolce & Gabbana's haute couture collections, clearly deserved it.
Alta Moda is the project that the Italian firm started in 2012 to offer high-end handmade and custom-made clothing, something even more exclusive than its
prêt-à-porter collections,
in fashion shows that, in a decade, have landed in the most picturesque destinations in Italy: Portofino, Venice, Capri or Naples.
On that first occasion, the venue was Taormina, also in Sicily: 73 outings of
Gattopardesque
splendor and a small audience, especially important clients, but still full of stars (Scarlett Johansson, Monica Bellucci, Laetitia Casta, Naomi Campbell and Isabella Rossellini attended ).
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Dolce&Gabbana (@dolcegabbana)
“Our customers follow us wherever we go.
At the beginning there were only 100, but today there are 750. It is a business and we are proud of it”, said Stefano Gabbana at the press conference on Saturday at noon.
Today, Alta Moda has not only grown in quantity —in its new proposal there were more than 100
looks—
and business volume;
fashion shows have become multi-day experiences where men's collections, fine jewelry, watchmaking and, on occasion, home are also shown.
One of the pink 'looks' at the Dolce & Gabbana parade on Saturday, July 9, in Siracusa, Sicily. Ernesto Ruscio (Getty Images)
Saturday's parade was a return to the origins, to the Italian tradition that forms the backbone of much of the imagination of these creators: "The sacred, the family, the black", illustrated Domenico Dolce, and his partner and ex-partner, Stefano Gabbana, interrupted : “Syracuse is the south of the south, it is almost Africa.
We love the stone with which it is built, we love the people, we love the culture”.
Black remains a fundamental color in Dolce & Gabbana designs. Ernesto Ruscio (Getty Images)
The show opened with a dance performance of the
Cavalleria Rusticana
— an opera by Pietro Mascagni that narrates a tragic love in the Sicilian village — carried out by girls dressed entirely in black, like elegant novices, and young men dressed for Sunday, also in black.
"Tonight is a celebration of black," Dolce warned at the press conference.
“My mother always wore black, even her underwear.
It is the color of all colors, the color of sensuality.”
She wasn't lying: in the collection there were long black veils that fell over
brightly colored
chiffon dresses;
also suggestive widow's outfits and seamed black stockings, head scarves or long transparent gloves.
But that was only the starting point.
The collection marked other milestones, such as a pink dress with a huge puffed shawl, like a great cloud of taffeta, or huge white cherubs —stolen from the facades of neighboring monuments— on the shoulders of a black dress.
Various ensembles of a long jacket, a very short skirt and knee-high boots offered a desirable eighties silhouette (shoulder pads, loose hair, long legs,
stilettos) .
blacks).
We are not talking about museum pieces but about sexy clothes, ready to be worn by a small but buoyant public, eager for photogenicity, luxury and fantasy.
One of the models dressed in white at the Dolce & Gabbana show. Ernesto Ruscio (Getty Images)
The luxury business has come back with a renewed force after the pandemic, but the collections that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana showed in Sicily also illustrate something that class doesn't understand: our need for escapism.
“Alta Moda is a laboratory, a laboratory to interpret our brand,” said Dolce.
But for designers, this is not just fashion but “an experience.
You can't understand it if you can't appreciate an
arancino
[typical Sicilian breaded rice dish] or a good wine.”
Gabbana intervened again: “That's why it's not a single day.
We want to share what Italy means through our artisans”.
And his will to dazzle grows every year.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Dolce&Gabbana (@dolcegabbana)
The night before, they had presented the collections of fine jewelry and watchmaking in showcases inside the Ear of Dionysus, the spectacular cavern that Caravaggio baptized when he visited them in 1608, fleeing from justice.
On Sunday, the Alta Sartoría parade was scheduled in the little fishing village of Marzamemi.
“What we have learned in these years is that, if something is
possible
, it is not special”, concludes Dolce.
"When we want to do something somewhere and they tell us it's not possible, we work harder to make it happen."
50% off
Exclusive content for subscribers
read without limits
subscribe
I'm already a subscriber