The invitation to today’s Dolce & Gabbana men’s show came on a thick black card overprinted with just the word “Sleek,” so you thought you knew what to expect—lean silhouettes devoid of embellishments, some polished gloss, fastidious grooming. But as Domenico Dolce pointed out at the press conference, words often bring us to all the wrong places, evoking predictable images or meanings. “What this collection is about is actually quite simple—true elegance,” he said. “It’s about the beauty of the handmade and the supreme quality that comes from our almost obsessive knowledge of the rules of tailoring.”
It’s knowledge they’ve certainly mastered, as their sartoria was established in the first place when they launched their brand in the mid-’80s; the practice of the fatto a mano—the handmade—has always given substance to their designs. It’s not a secret that the suits coming from their ateliers are among the best in the business. This collection was a celebration of the designers’ expertise, grounded in the great tradition of classic Italian tailoring yet synced up to meet the renewed flair for elegance of young generations. “The proportions and construction are of the essence: A well-cut jacket gives you posture and presence,” Stefano Gabbana said. “Yet it’s not only a decades-long passionate dedication to exacting execution,” Dolce said, “it’s also about our constant rumination on the idea of masculinity.”
The show’s 62 looks were mostly suits and mostly in black, with only three suits in white, a coat in camel and another in gray, and a couple of fabulous, outstanding furs made out of fluffy shearling. Tailoring obviously reigned supreme, infused with both precision and sensuality, permeated with a sense of romance and old-school allure that the designers called “aristocratic as in a Visconti movie, fit for a young Helmut Berger or Rudolf Nureyev.”
The elegant repertoire of spencer jackets, tuxedos, and tight coats was given a languid formality, with luscious blouses in creamy satin replacing white poplin smoking shirts and frivolous bows closing buttonless blazers. Thin scarf collars and organza flowers on flat black patent evening shoes hinted at a sensuous take on the masculine. The soundtrack (a soulful piano piece) as well as the soft-gray padding of the venue gave the show a chic, velvety vibe.
As always with Dolce & Gabbana, there was no shortage of front-row action. While Jeff Bezos took in the atmosphere, fiancée Lauren Sanchez watched proudly as her son Nikko Gonzalez walked the show. Outside the Metropol venue, the usual screaming crowd of teenagers went crazy for young Korean stars Rowoon, Younghoon, Hyunjae, and DPR Ian, who were dressed not in shredded denims or slouchy tracksuits, but in Dolce & Gabbana’s impeccably cut sartoria suits.
