Designers seek to shake off controversy over January show with emphasis on ‘instantly recognisable’ womenswear
Neither Dolce nor Gabbana would comment on the all-white casting that clouded their menswear show in January, though it seems they read the headlines. More than a third of the looks at their womenswear show in Milan on Saturday were modelled by women of colour.
Instead, they wanted to talk about identity. Not politics, but more tellingly, theirs. “Our collections speak to us, our identity, our values,” said the pair after the show. “We never wanted to follow trends.” Their aim instead, they said, was to make “instantly recognisable” clothes that “when you see [them] … you think: ‘Oh, that’s Dolce & Gabbana,’ without reading the label.”
In many ways, you can. The business partners have rarely strayed from the idealised vision of Italian archetypes on which they founded their brand in 1985. For men, it is the macho Italian beefcake. For women, it is the Sicilian widow – and the mistress.
On Saturday’s catwalk, they introduced a new woman into the fold, the gen Z hipster, wearing baggy ripped-denim jeans and a satin bra-top. Otherwise, most of the show was black, save for a red shoe, a scarlet lip or a pretty green doctor’s bag. There was fur but thankfully it was fake. (Milan and Paris are yet to join London and New York in banning animal fur on the catwalks.) Crucifix earrings and Cinema Paradiso-style baker-boy hats were among the accessories.
