Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana finished Milan on a grace note, with a celebration of the artisans they depend upon to make so many of their clothes.
Black-and-white videos of il calzolaio (the shoemaker), la sarta (the seamstress), la magliaia (the knitter), la tessitrice (the weaver), la cravattaia (the tie maker), and more played on video screens, and in the Metropol’s foyer artigiani sat at workbenches and posed with guests. “It’s very Italian, like the menswear,” Gabbana said of the collection in a preview. “It’s a tribute through our eyes to tradition.”
One way or another, Italian tradition is what Dolce and Gabbana are always celebrating, but this collection had a sweeter effect than usual for all its handicrafts. The designers described sending out their sketches to home knitters and crocheters all over Italy and being stunned by the finesse with which their designs were realized. Pointing to the curving waist and hips of a crochet bra and briefs, Dolce said, “It’s not like cutting fabric with scissors.” He continued: “This was a beautiful experiment for the whole company, these knitters were teaching us.”
This embrace of artisanship is reverberating across fashion. It’s a reaction as much to our turbulent (dystopian?) times as to our tech addictions. “Obviously we love sexy,” Gabbana said, “but it felt too aggressive in this moment. We wanted to take life in a more soft way, more intimate.” And so, bejewelled satin evening sandals shared the runway with hand-knit house slippers, and the easy-wearing house robe was reinterpreted in a myriad of ways: in crochet, in a lofty shearling lookalike that was actually a knit, and in an ultra-soft menswear alpaca whose oversize proportions were lifted from a circa late 1980s Dolce & Gabbana menswear show. Those look like more innocent times, don’t they? (vogue.com)
Black-and-white videos of il calzolaio (the shoemaker), la sarta (the seamstress), la magliaia (the knitter), la tessitrice (the weaver), la cravattaia (the tie maker), and more played on video screens, and in the Metropol’s foyer artigiani sat at workbenches and posed with guests. “It’s very Italian, like the menswear,” Gabbana said of the collection in a preview. “It’s a tribute through our eyes to tradition.”
One way or another, Italian tradition is what Dolce and Gabbana are always celebrating, but this collection had a sweeter effect than usual for all its handicrafts. The designers described sending out their sketches to home knitters and crocheters all over Italy and being stunned by the finesse with which their designs were realized. Pointing to the curving waist and hips of a crochet bra and briefs, Dolce said, “It’s not like cutting fabric with scissors.” He continued: “This was a beautiful experiment for the whole company, these knitters were teaching us.”
This embrace of artisanship is reverberating across fashion. It’s a reaction as much to our turbulent (dystopian?) times as to our tech addictions. “Obviously we love sexy,” Gabbana said, “but it felt too aggressive in this moment. We wanted to take life in a more soft way, more intimate.” And so, bejewelled satin evening sandals shared the runway with hand-knit house slippers, and the easy-wearing house robe was reinterpreted in a myriad of ways: in crochet, in a lofty shearling lookalike that was actually a knit, and in an ultra-soft menswear alpaca whose oversize proportions were lifted from a circa late 1980s Dolce & Gabbana menswear show. Those look like more innocent times, don’t they? (vogue.com)
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