Today’s Dolce & Gabbana show opened with a black-and-white video of the designers and their studio assistants sketching, draping, and fitting models in looks from the collection that would walk the runway minutes later. Fatto a mano was stitched across the bodice of one of the dresses: “Made by hand.” In a year in which the designers have struggled to find the right tone, the video portrayed a team of dedicated makers working hard and enjoying what they do.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana named the collection Eleganza and enlisted a master of ceremonies to narrate the 127-look march past. It was divided into a dozen or so sections, each one representative of one of the signatures the designers have developed over the past 36 years: men’s tailoring, leopard print, brocade, sequins, women’s tailoring in menswear fabrics, et cetera. In recent years, their practice has been to put a seasonal gloss on those trademarks. Italy’s world-famous cuisine one season, its tourist destinations another, or the opera. This season the device was that MC. Haute couture shows of old were accompanied by stately voiced descriptions; this was a tongue-in-cheek take on a method of presentation that had mostly passed out of fashion by the time Dolce and Gabbana started working. It was definitely never this camp: “Enough of the atelier,” the MC declared. “Run to the boutique!” Though it was designed with the same intention as the opening video—to underscore the duo’s seriousness and sincerity—it lacked some of the wit necessary to keep it engaging. In 2019, not all women dream of being princesses or whisked away for a 365-hour shopping spree by a man. Some would like to be whisked away by another woman, and some are happy to pay for their purchases themselves.
That said, for the Dolce & Gabbana client, this was a winning show—a full day-to-night wardrobe of time-tested looks, minus the athleisure, streetwear, and influencer front row that they had lately taken on board in a bid at currency. In a preview, the designers said that the young celebrities they’ve been dressing, the men especially, have been turned on by sartorialism—some of these guys had never worn a suit before their first Dolce & Gabbana fitting. They’re advocating for a similar “return to classicality” on the women’s side.
As familiar as it looked from a distance, seen in close-up there were new techniques here. In the flower section, for example, some of the prints weren’t prints at all but heat transfers of individual blooms with glossy surfaces, which mixed with three-dimensional fabric and raffia flowers on full-skirted dresses and more fitted, sexy ones. They also got playful with patternmaking on a pair of dresses that were spliced together from separate 1940s and 1980s silhouettes. It was satisfying to see the designers engage in experimentation, even on this small scale. There’s security in classics, but it’s risks that will make Dolce & Gabbana vital going forward.
