DOLCE & Gabbana gave SS17 a no-holds-barred I.T.A.L.I.A.N bonanza in Milan. Going heavy on the hot, spicy hometown influences stemming from Sicily and other islands Capri, Ischia, Pantelleria, and Capri, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce produced their latest collection with patriotism at its core. They aren’t just a part of the Italian fashion industry – D&G is Italian fashion.
Designs destined for party shores on the Amalfi had a skimpier youthfulness than usual, matched in part by the harum-scarum of insignias on each and every piece, maintaining the fast-paced youth code. Nonetheless, the entire range clothing, bedazzled skirts scaling every length, figure hugging lace gowns, t-shirts and jeans, all decked out in catholic regalia and a buffet of resplendent trimmings as usual, meant well.
Dolce and Gabbana are now veritably selling the Italian dream like the American one never existed. When you start putting pizzas on dresses and the Madonna on tees, there really isn’t any other explanation. It is an attractive manifesto which isn’t harming their strong sense of creative identity in any way, yet seems to be reaching a kind of fever pitch.
Interesting to think that sometime in the distant, or maybe even not so distant, future Dolce & Gabbana could be a brand that’s taken on a whole new identity to breathe the required new life into the label’s output. Until that time comes, we’ll appreciate the vida loca whilst it’s still executed so appealingly.
by Livia Feltham
Images courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana