If the last year-and-a-half has made us feel like Nicole Kidman’s children in The Others, Dolce & Gabbana have just the remedy: “#DGLightTherapy” read their show invitation, a card studded with gems that lit up at the flick of a switch. Stefano Gabbana was a teenager when he first saw the “luminaire” light shows native to the south of Italy during a religious ceremony. The experience stayed with him. “Happiness. Enjoyment. Wow,” he recalled, on the phone from Milan, hours before his and Domenico Dolce’s first runway show with an audience in nearly a year. “Finally, there’s somebody to watch our show!” he laughed. “We love the human touch, watching people during the show, coming out for the finale.”
Like fish back in water, the designers had decked out their Metropol runway room like the multicolored cathedrals of lights you’ll find during night-time festivals in the Puglia region and beyond. It felt very welcome-home, and recalled some of the Alta Moda festivities they’ve hosted around Italy over the years. “It’s a very Italian tradition: a celebration of light, family and artisans. This is the most important message for us today,” Gabbana explained. “Light is good therapy for this moment. Now we need to see light, joy and happiness in the eyes of people. That’s what we want.” What the kids want, of course, is archive Dolce & Gabbana. On social media, the feeling for the early 2000s is strong, and the designers are happy to oblige.
Interpreting their light therapy in clothes, they encrusted a millennial silhouette (the era, not the generation) with enough crystals to see Swarovski through the pandemic. A denim-on-denim baggy jacket-and-trouser combo had to take you down memory lane, not to mention the petrol-washed or bleached jeans that made for something of a climax for the millennially-inclined. Evolving the roomier tailoring the designers introduced last season (an instant update to their formal tailoring), a soft suit had been hung with multi-colored gems and blazers were naturally made slouchier by the weight of crystals. Even David Gandy’s tight, white trunks from the 2006 Light Blue perfume campaign made an appearance, dusted off with sparkling new diamanté.
A T-shirt read “2000s Fashion Moment.” Dolce & Gabbana aren’t afraid of nostalgia. “It’s a way of reminding yourself of something: our roots, our memories, our sentiments,” said Gabbana. “Fashion is not just a piece of fabric. When we work, we work with a sentiment; with our heart and with our brains. For Domenico and me, it’s our lives. Our collection is pieces of us. We are very sentimental.” In the process, they also revisited the early 1990s, blinging out a hip-hop silhouette that layered mesh tops over white tank tops and re-introduced the half-and-half sports jacket. Is a light-catching oversized glitter suit going to put purpose to your post-pandemic step? It depends on your constitution, but boy will it brighten up your surroundings.
