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2022-07-23T10:43:14.111Z


Dolce & Gabbana celebrated the tenth anniversary of Alta Moda, the project with which they debuted in haute couture, with a show in Syracuse. A festival of brilliance and crafts with a Mediterranean accent


It's a sizzling July morning in the Sicilian city of Syracuse, but the heat is forgotten as you cross the threshold of the Ortea Palace, all marble and air-conditioned coolness.

A long carpet patterned with tiles, flowers, lemons, and Sicilian wagon wheels runs through the hotel lobby, ending at the front door of a Dolce & Gabbana pop-up store: bright, forbidding, and inhabited by a small legion of solicitous dependents of both. sexes.

The location of the store is not accidental.

The Ortea Palace is one of the establishments in the area where the 600 guests are staying —most of them important clients of Dolce & Gabbana— who have been summoned to the weekend of parades, big parties and presentations of the haute couture collections of the Italian firm.

You never know when you might need a beaded floor-length gown, an elegant double-breasted jacket;

silk shirts for men, women and children;

a complete tableware with a zebra pattern... or, why not, a souvenir.

Designers Dolce & Gabbana with Mariah Carey, last month in Siracusa.Dolce & Gabbana

Alta Moda is the name of the project with which, 10 years ago, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana decided to step on the accelerator of craftsmanship, fantasy and exclusivity: a collection of unique pieces, made to measure and shown every six months in places —for once, the cliché is true— of breathtaking beauty.

“Alta Moda represents a higher psychological, cultural and material stage than prêt-à-porter.

It allows us to raise the Italian style to a dream level”, explain by email the designers, who founded their firm in 1985 and in the beginning were a couple as well as partners.

"It's a total experience," they continue.

“We have a responsibility to provoke new emotions every time.

People who come to our events come from all over the world to see something amazing, so don't just surprise them,

but to make sure that they leave with the desire to return.

It is a physical and creative commitment in which we invest a lot of energy”.

An exit from the last Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda show in Piazza Duomo, Syracuse, in July 2022.Dolce & Gabbana

The adventure began with a parade for women in the old monastery of San Domenico in Taormina, also in Sicily: a show attended by Scarlett Johansson and Stephanie Seymour, among the hundred clients and very few members of the press who were invited.

Taking photos was prohibited.

Since then, the project has grown (now it also includes men —Alta Sartoria— and jewelry and watches —Alta Gioielleria—) and, of course, now you can take photos.

Last September there were memorable images: the models arriving by gondola at Saint Mark's Square in Venice;

Jennifer Lopez, dressed as a Byzantine queen, or Jennifer Hudson, singing in her golden gown blowing in the wind with the Doge's Palace in the background (she then poured rain, which added an unexpected romantic epic to the event).

One of the models of the last parade in Syracuse in July 2022. Dolce & Gabbana

They say that the most famous WhatsApp group among Dolce & Gabbana employees is that of those who are in contact with the best clients of the house, and that it turns red at each Alta Moda event.

During the show, when a client tells his seller that he wants this or that outing, he communicates it in the chat and the fastest one gets the dress.

The parade's adrenaline works: it can happen that, at the end, a good part of the collection is sold and even a client gets a dress to wear at the next day's event (prices are between 50,000 and hundreds of thousands). euros, although the jewels reach seven figures).

“When we started, everyone was against it,” say the designers of an idea, recast haute couture from an Italian perspective — the big houses are often in Paris — that many in the industry perceived as a marketing ploy.

In terms of business, the volume of Alta Moda is small (last year, the Financial Times estimated it at 4.5% of a turnover of just over one billion euros), but the positive impact on the perception of the brand is priceless.

The designers do reveal a fact: at the beginning there were 100 clients and now there are 700 around the planet.

"It's the best advertising in the world, it's like a club," Gabbana said.

Detail of a 2016 Dolce & Gabbana High Fashion dress.

Dolce and Gabbana

With Alta Moda, Dolce & Gabbana was a pioneer in betting on haute couture, a business that is enjoying a renewed boom today, and is in line with a long-term strategy: to ensure the firm's place in the most elite sector of luxury, less vulnerable to economic instability.

In 2011 the firm canceled its young line, D&G, to merge it with the main brand, and this year it announced that it was ending the license with the Shiseido group to start manufacturing its own perfumes, something that only some firms do, such as Chanel, Dior or Hermes.

"We have to go to the highest sector," Gianluca Toniolo, head of Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, declared to the aforementioned economic newspaper.

The endurance capacity of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana is unique in the industry: both self-made men are among the few who remain autonomous in a sector dominated by large business groups and investment funds.

"We want to stay independent to remain free and authentic," Dolce said last year.

The couple has also resisted various controversies;

among them, that of a video for the Chinese market that in 2018 generated a great deal of dust, and from which its business in the Asian giant is recovering.

Designers know how to stay in the spotlight.

The latest headlines were given in May by Kourtney Kardashian's wedding, in which the entire clan of influencers was dressed in the signature.

Dolce & Gabbana Venice show grand finale in 2021. Dolce & Gabbana

In a highly flammable world, the festival of luxury, celebrity and monumental beauty offered by High Fashion is an effective tool of seduction.

“Since Taormina (2012), everything has been on the rise.

Our grand tour has passed through Naples, Florence, Portofino, Capri, Palermo, Milan… Alta Moda is the story of our love for Italy and for beauty”, says Dolce.

And Ortygia, the historic center of Syracuse — an island with Greek roots and Baroque monumentality — was perfect for the tenth anniversary.

That Friday in July, a short walk from the Ortea Palace, the workers build in the Piazza del Duomo, under a blazing sun, the stage for the next day's parade: a catwalk and a staircase that, from a distance, could have been there since the time of Archimedes.

On Saturday night, the balconies of the square full of people and parade guests dressed as in a luxurious carnival, everything happens with Spielbergian precision.

First, Helen Mirren, Sharon Stone, Lupita Nyong'o and a Mariah Carey covered in colorful tiles and flanked by the designers themselves posed on the runway.

Afterwards, more than 100 looks paraded that must have caused a peak of stress in the chat of the vip sellers.

From an elegant white crochet lace gown (with matching Madonna-in-Like-a-Virgin booties) to a head-length rose-draped cape to nearly edible sherbet-colored floor-length gowns, the collection was an homage to the designers' roots and Syracuse's cultural landmarks.

And at the same time, a seductive regiment of looks that ask for occasions to be worn.

Something that, according to the designers, will not be missing: “Never before have young people appreciated the beauty of formal wear so much.

We see it in castings, in fashion shows, in the people who work with us”.

a seductive regiment of looks that ask for occasions to be worn.

Something that, according to the designers, will not be missing: “Never before have young people appreciated the beauty of formal wear so much.

We see it in castings, in fashion shows, in the people who work with us”.

a seductive regiment of looks that ask for occasions to be worn.

Something that, according to the designers, will not be missing: “Never before have young people appreciated the beauty of formal wear so much.

We see it in castings, in fashion shows, in the people who work with us”.

The 2015 Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Portofino. Dolce & Gabbana

The party ended on the beach, with a dinner where chefs made pasta dishes live among festival lights.

On Sunday, Domenico and Stefano presented their opulent Alta Sartoria collection in the little fishing village of Marzamemi, with a corresponding celebration.

The festivities continued until Tuesday, in a long weekend that is already a classic.

The revision of the popular that Dolce & Gabbana cultivates so much has ended up crystallizing into something of its own.

They have created their own tradition.

“We have been working together for more than 40 years.

We never wanted to follow trends, but rather offer our idea of ​​fashion.

We think it has ended up paying off."

Sketch of a Dolce & Gabbana design.Dolce & Gabbana

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-23

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