Dolce&Gabbana is a quintessential Italian brand incorporating schools of Italian art and artistry in its Alta Moda (Italian for haute couture) collections. Their beauty is expansive and intricate, ageless and sexy, and audacious, with something for everyone’s dreams. So, when I first learned of Palazzo Reale’s “From the Hearts to the Hands” Dolce&Gabbana exhibit, I quickly booked a flight to Milan, reached out to connected Italians (aren’t they all?), and arranged for a personal tour. We know that highly curated and experientially designed fashion exhibits have become blockbusters for museums and installation spaces. This was no exception. Simply put, I was blown away. The exhibit was room after room – 10 in total – of confections inspiring attendees with a curiosity to learn more about Italian culture, visit Italy’s many Medieval towns, as well as indulge in Dolce&Gabbana’s more attainable products (coffee and espresso pots perhaps?).
Dolce&Gabbana style is not for the faint of heart. Maximalism aptly describes the creations and fashion events of Dolce&Gabbana as much as it does those of Alessandro Michele’s designs at Gucci. The D&G collections are steeped in references to Italy’s heritage of art, creativity and innovation and the evocative Italian landscape that juxtaposes ruins from 2000 BC to a 2024 Lamborghini with a smattering of Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and Sienese Madonnas in between.
Extreme Perspective
Dolce&Gabbana style is not for the faint of heart. Maximalism, defined as “an aesthetic style characterized by an excess of bold colors, intricate patterns and a philosophy of ‘more is more’” aptly describes the creations and fashion events of Dolce&Gabbana as much as it does those of Alessandro Michele’s designs at Gucci. The D&G collections are steeped in references to Italy’s heritage of art, creativity and innovation and the evocative Italian landscape that juxtaposes ruins from 2000 BC to a 2024 Lamborghini with a smattering of Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and Sienese Madonnas in between. And they are operatic in scope.
Emanuela Scarpellini, wrote in “The Business of Fashion, The Glamour of Italian Fashion Since 1945” that in the birth of Italian design, “everyday objects like clothes and furniture can have aesthetic meaning and enhance the interior landscapes of our homes. Beauty is not limited to the exclusive worlds of museums or high culture and can instead grace our day-to-day lives: no longer a privilege exclusive to a select few, we all can enjoy its value.”
Ever since 2012 when their first couture show was staged in the remote seaside town of Taormina, Sicily and Dolce&Gabbana took over a former monastery to show their collection, the design partners have leveraged the power of 5000 years of Western civilization’s antiquities, myths and history to create mind-boggling fashion shows. The designers’ desire to cultivate awareness and appreciation of Italian culture is a full-frontal assault on the senses.
For anyone who hasn’t attended a Dolce&Gabbana Alta Moda fashion show fete, an immersive multi-day experience steeped in Italian artistic culture and one-of-a-kind fashion pieces, the show brings together fashion from the Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria (high-level men’s formal wear), and Alta Gioielleria (haute or fine jewelry) in one over-the-top event.
Dolce&Gabbana are intuitive showmen. About 1000 guests are invited to multi-day –sometimes weeklong—bacchanals that include operas, theater, dining, storytelling and fashion. The designers are also community-minded; when their Alta Moda collections are debuted, the local community is involved for months, from providing food and wine to local artisans who sell their work, extending the culture of craft beyond the fashion event.
Big Business
This may sound more like an art history review than an international business report, but the creative talents of Dominic Dolce and Stephano Gabbana drive a €1.9 billion global business which ranked #45 in Deloitte’s Global Power of Luxury Goods 2023. At a time when many Italian fashion brands have succumbed to foreign owners and investors, Dolce&Gabbana remains private, with the co-founders each owning 40 percent and the Dolce family, the remaining 20 percent. In tandem with announcing fiscal 2023/2024 results on July 22, (revenues rose 17 percent to €1.9 billion) and 2024 goals, the company’s stance is loosening up and they “are now ready to consider opening our capital to third parties through a listing or other financial instruments.”
Italian Fashion Mash-Up
The “From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce&Gabbana” exhibit is a declaration of love of Italian culture as the muse behind the spirit of the brand. It reflects the extraordinary creative process of its founders — from the heart, where ideas are born, to the hands, which give ideas inspiration and shape.
Presented in Milan’s Palazzo Reale, the exhibit showcases D&G’s ‘fatto a mano’ (handmade) collections from 2012 through 2023, initially presented at the brand’s Alta Moda shows on location in various known and lesser-known Italian cities and villages.
It’s no surprise the exhibit was such a knockout — it was curated by French fashion historian Florence Müller, who also worked on other notable exhibits (“Dior: From Paris to the World” and “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective”). The exhibit elevates one-of-a-kind haute couture pieces to works of art and they are priced in the stratosphere only for the one percent. But the ripple effect, or the halo of this haute couture brand strategy is to make the brand more accessible for ready-to-wear, accessories, fashion jewelry, and home products including iconic Dolce&Gabbana espresso makers, refrigerators and stoves (still quite pricey, think $100 to $10,000).
Cultural Inspiration
Dolce&Gabbana CEO Alfonso Dolce said, “The concepts of ‘Italianness’ and craftsmanship are innate elements of Dolce&Gabbana’s culture. Within our cultural framework, Italianness is the highest expression of beauty.” The co-founders’ original intent in founding their business was to “give soul to products through know-how and spread the Italian culture of beauty all over the world. The idea is to make people appreciate Italy not only when they visit our country but also when they discover our values through our products. Our customers choose us for a specific lifestyle and to share in a sense of belonging, and also because they know they are inheriting a piece of our history.”
