‘This Alta Moda collection is very very very very Dolce e Gabbana,’ said Domenico Dolce at the Ortea Palace Hotel in Sicily yesterday, a few hours before the show. In front of him, the international press pack; to his right behind a red rope, the design duo’s clients taking lunch - DG silk pyjamas and sliders for the men, and cotton dresses printed with Italian motifs like lemons for the women.
He wasn’t lying: what followed was the precise high octane opulence that has come to define the Dolce & Gabbana world. Because it is a world, whole and complete. Per Domenico, sat on an ottoman in the brand's Diana print: ‘Alta is a style of life. It’s not just fashion. It’s beautiful ice cream, beautiful granitas.’ And this, the 10-year anniversary of Alta Moda - the designers’ made-to-measure wing - took everything to the next level.
The drama was heightened by several models fainting in the Sicilian sun. It was hot - very hot - and the show was long. Heidi Klum, whose daughter Leni was modelling one of the last looks, reckoned four models had fallen. ‘You worry,’ she told me. ‘It's amazing watching my daughter walking in the show. But it looks easier than it is to stand for 30 minutes straight, not moving around. It's hard to be in one place. And it's hot.’
But long before the show began, clients and celebrities were filling up the Piazza Duomo of Siracusa. Built in elements like bridges melded with the real grand buildings of the town square to form the set; and hundreds of tables with elegant white tablecloths were waited on by handsome servers. One of the house’s top Alta Moda clients posed in her vast black hooded dress, soaking up the attention.
Front and centre were Sharon Stone and Helen Mirren, who sat together; the Marchioness of Bath ran up the steps to hug Lady Kitty Spencer; Drew Barrymore was cherub-like in two-tone pink chiffon with a raft of roses on her arms; and Klum wore an embellished jumpsuit as she geared up for Leni’s big entrance.
Then the elegant crowd became a rabble. Mariah Carey had emerged from the set hand in hand with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, wearing a fitted gown with a plunging bust line, featuring embellishments of Sicilian blues and reds and yellows. Atop her mane, perceptible all night long over the crowd, a huge gold and aquamarine tiara. She tottered to her seat, and the show began to Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.
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It was the Sicilian woman that inspired this latest collection: ‘if you ask someone to imagine the Sicilian woman from the past, they think of black. The black is sensual,’ said Domenico. And she had been rendered larger than life.
Black veils underpinned the collection, and transparency was employed to maximum effect. Hosiery visible under pleated chiffon skirts when the models walked, but opaque when they stood still was suggestive in a romantic way; lace and embroidered gowns showed flashes of skin through transparent material so that each model was modestly covered - but not really.
The Roman Catholic influences were consistent: rosaries with huge gemstones and necklaces bearing crosses joined the delicately embroidered veils. Boots in silver and gold were adorned with gobstopper stones that caught the Sicilian sunlight and twinkled like armour. Adding to that strong image was golden boning, which resembled a deconstructed corset. For the house’s major clients, these showstopper elements will surely be tempting.
But it wasn’t all black and gold. There were white coats with angel wings or baroque statues structured on each arm; a huge, billowing pink coat, its proportions further heightened with silk roses; an orange (‘Even orange!’ said Stefano earlier that day) dress that covered its model’s head.
The final look garnered a standing ovation. A vast red coat thrown over a black bodycon dress, held by the chiffon-gloved hands of its model; an embroidered black veil over her face. The rose of Siracusa.
In the Piazza Duomo, where baroque theatricality feels mythical in its proportions, it was a coming together of legend, history and religion. As Helen Mirren enthused over dinner afterwards, ‘it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.’
