Future Heirlooms: An Insight To The Alta Moda Show That Served As The Bridge Between The Past And Present For Dolce&Gabbana
From the traditional contemporary crafts to the launch of an NFT collection, here’s everything that went down at the iconic Venice fashion show
Sunset at Piazza San Marco, and the stage was set for an ambitious comeback of epic proportions. “For us, Venice represents the perfect harmony of opposites that attract: It is romantic and sensual, melancholic and joyful, rational and visionary, luminous and nocturnal, sacred and profane, dark and golden,” declared the designers. “It is the city of Casanova, of the Carnival, of the historic regatta on the Grand Canal. Countless merchants – of whom Marco Polo was merely the most famous – sailed from its shores, and their trade made Venetian civilisation known to the world.”
Not only was this the first Alta Moda show in the flesh since a mighty pestilence forced the world behind closed doors, and its couture presentations momentarily online, but it also heralded Dolce&Gabbana’s triumphant return to Venice. Yet unbeknown to Domenico and Stefano, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons was not only a fitting leitmotif for our Alta Moda adventure but also an antediluvian prophecy making the days even more dramatic than even Dolce&Gabbana could have imagined.
It’s been eight years since the designer duo brought its spectacular show of one-off confections created for their most extravagant and exacting clients from around the world to this spellbinding Italian city. Alta Moda had last graced Palazzo Barbaro, on the Grand Canal, only a year after its launch when the business was still in its infancy. A total of 150 guests were invited in 2013, but such is the power of Alta Moda that this year, Dolce&Gabbana hosted 400 clients and personal friends of the brand.
“Returning to Venice always fills us with unique emotions, which we hold dear in our hearts and now wish to share with all of you because Venice hides immeasurable treasures that will be revealed in all their resplendent beauty,” they announced.
And for the Venetians, it was not a moment too soon. “People thought we were crazy to think about Piazza San Marco, but we asked, ‘Why not?’ We thought we’d get a flat, ‘No,’ but we were wrong,” the designers recalled. “We were terrified, certain that they’d have objections. And you know how it went? They said, ‘We were waiting for you.’ It was the same when we met the provost of the Basilica and the officials from the Fine Arts Commission. And the mayor kept asking why we hadn’t come back.”
Domenico explained, “Every time we sketch Alta Moda, we take inspiration from the city and location. We take inspiration from wherever we go. Eight years ago we took inspiration from Tintoretto, Casanova, and Carnival. This season, we changed our point of view completely. We tried to explore all the Venetian craftsmanship like the chandeliers and the glasses.”
The designers’ decision couldn’t have come at a more serendipitous moment for the cottage industries crippled by the pandemic, and at a time when we’re mindful of and searching for more meaning behind the making of our clothes. “For us, Venice was like arriving in a playground: From the glassworks to the weavers, to the jewellers. From working with Venini, Toso, Seguso or Salviati, we were able to rediscover ancient processes that had been somewhat lost, and discovered a world that could blend right in with fashion,” they told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “When we went to the Orsoni mosaic shop, who are responsible for St. Mark’s Basilica, we couldn’t believe our eyes – it was a cavern filled with an infinity of colours.”
Before the assembled international press at the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia, Domenico shrugged, “We think – sorry to say – that Italy is the best artisanal country in the world because the people here work with passion. Honestly when we started Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria and Alta Gioielleria with the artisans, we never asked about how much time they needed to complete this project. When you ask an artist how long they need to make a masterpiece, they will kill you,” he laughed. “Art is love, and you never put a time limit on love. Love is unconditional. And now look at the marvel around you! This is the power of the Italians. We don’t think about the trends or the deadlines or the price. Globalisation kills creativity and the artist. Today people from different countries travel to Venice, Firenze or Rome. What do they see? They see Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Uffizi, Colosseo. Why? Because these places are still there because its artists have worked with their heart.”
Auspiciously timed in the last days of August during the Biennale Architettura 2021, as the stars were arriving for the glittering 78th Film Festival, there was palpable hope in the air of a post-pandemic reawakening and a return to life’s pleasures. “After the Great Depression came the Roaring Twenties,” remarked one exquisitely dressed guest over an alfresco dinner the night before the festivities began. “When can we fast forward to the fun?” Only history will tell us for certain if the Dolce&Gabbana Alta Moda takeover of Venice will be remembered as The Great Gatsby gathering of our generation, but even on the eve of the events, there was already a collective sense that we were about to experience something extraordinary.
“The return of Alta Moda and Alta Sartoria are like rebirths for us. After two years of the lockdown, we were afraid that we would lose the sense of our community again. Alta Moda is not just clothes, it’s a style of life. It is a group of people, it is a community. We were afraid that the pandemic would cancel this attitude,” admitted Domenico on the day of the show. “Yesterday when we saw people enjoying themselves, we felt so lucky that the mood of Alta Moda was not dead.”
However, don’t let the animated chatter, the clinking of glasses and the clatter of heels on the cobblestones of Venice distract you. Underpinning this reunion of Dolce&Gabbana’s closest celebrity friends and couture clients lies a considered strategy to safeguard the integrity of the Alta Moda model for the future. “I remember when we started Alta Moda,” recounted Domenico of the launch of the business in 2012. “Everyone said Alta Moda is for the old ladies. This season we want to introduce Alta Moda to the young generation. Alta Moda is not defined just by it being expensive. It is a style of life that is exclusive, unique and beautiful. Social media in today’s world makes everything very flat. It makes everything for everybody. I don’t believe everything should be for everybody. You chose what you want. I think every person is unique. No one is the same as another. The idea of the Alta Moda is becoming younger as time passes, as young as 16 and 14… it’s coming back as new energy. This for us is very important.”
A strong sense of la famiglia has always been at the beating heart of Dolce&Gabbana, from the designers stitching childhood memories into catwalk collections to mother-daughter dressing. And for Alta Moda, this was amplified thanks to the presence of P. Diddy and his daughters Chance and twins D’Lila Star and Jessie James; Monica Bellucci and her daughter Deva; Heidi Klum and daughter Leni; and Christian Bale’s daughter Emmeline. And the historic social-media ban in place to protect the exclusivity of the pieces for their clients was lifted for maximum impact. “This season we decided to present six new girls – completely fresh. These girls represent a new life, a new attitude,” Domenico announced of the celebrity progeny. “For us, it’s the new generation,” he continued.
Despite Sharon Stone being spotted in St Mark’s Square dressed in Dolce&Gabbana, Diddy quite literally showboating at Cipriani on the day of the show, and Jennifer Lopez posting her glow-up on Instagram complete with a tiara and cape, Stefano insisted, “Tonight is not about names.” How right he was.
Domenico remarked, “We come to Venezia a lot for work and every night around six or seven o’clock, the sky changes colour completely – sometimes pink, sometimes red. All are very special colours. It’s impossible to recreate the colours in nature but we tried.”
It was at this very witching hour that the Alta Moda adventure began. Historically, the Doge of Venice would invite visiting ambassadors and rulers the city to disembark at Piazza San Marco to charm them with the splendour of the view. In the past, it had served as the setting for grandiose receptions, flamboyant parades and even public executions, but tonight belonged to Dolce&Gabbana.
Boats bringing guests circled the banks of San Marco greeted by 150 performers complete with powdered wigs, masquerade masks, and 17th-century period costume staging Venetian carnival scenes on a catwalk stretching from the water to the Basilica and winding round the clock tower. Around 400 couture clients, seated at café tables instead of rows, enjoyed what was most certainly the most ostentatious aperitivo in fashion history. “People can order whatever they want because during these hours it will be as if they were guests in our home,” the designers disclosed.
Celebrity friends of the brand including Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lopez, P. Diddy, Monica Bellucci, Heidi Klum, Kitty Spencer and Kate Bosworth found their places as Jennifer Hudson took to the stage in a billowing gold gown to belt out a bluesy rendition of Nessun Dorma from the opera Turandot accompanied only by a jazz piano. As the aria reached its stirring crescendo, the first model rose from one of the gondolas gathered at the banks to the strains of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and glided onto the catwalk like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus jubilantly emerging from the sea.
From the very first look, printed silks and glass beading depicting iconic elevations of Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge served as postcards from Venice and Dolce&Gabbana’s love letter to Alta Moda. “This collection is a tribute to the craftsmanship of Venice,” confirmed Stefano. “There are a lot of new techniques used. We worked with new materials like plastic, glass, new kinds of embroidery like patchworks and big knits. We took inspiration from 17th-century chandeliers – there are four or five dresses completely like a chandelier, and four dresses that mimic the effect of Murano glass. We also took inspiration from the shape of the goblets for many pieces in our collection – dresses take on the shape of an over-turned glass moulded onto the body, the heels of the shoes, and now even the earrings.”
However the journey from the Venetian workshops to the catwalk wasn’t all smooth sailing. “When we start any work with unusual fabric, like crystals, we never know how the clothes will turn out in the end,” conceded Domenico. “We don’t think about the end, we just start and see how it goes from there. If it’s too obvious, it’s too easy. When the technique and the experimentation are new, you can never predict the end result. You just need to start somewhere.” Little wonder, then, that only one of each of these audacious Alta Moda creations is ever made. And in Murano, artisans joked that half the island had been working for Dolce&Gabbana for months.
Catwalk cameos from Chance, and the Combs twins, Deva Cassel, Leni Klum and Emmeline Bale weren’t the only concession to Alta Moda’s new mood. Of course the typical tulle, lace, velvet, draped chiffon taffeta were present in corseted silhouettes, and ostentatious ballgowns, while satin shimmered like the sun setting on the Grand Canal but also on the runway, strong-shouldered oversized blazers styled à la Hailey Bieber with micro skirts and bare legs, and Billie Eilish-hued hair courtesy of Guido Palau, spoke directly to Gen Z.
While guests were mesmerised by the spectacle on the catwalk, storm clouds had been swirling above Piazza San Marco, slowly turning from pleasing pastels to gloomy greys. Soundtracked by the Winter movement of Vivaldi’s concerto – almost as if Mother Nature was on the call sheet – the first drops of rain began to fall, which on cue, became a rainbow over Palazzo Ducale. Gusts of wind made the floor-sweeping hemlines flutter rendering these opulent gowns all the more dramatic, and by the time the 100th Alta Moda look graced the catwalk and the designers took their bow, even the clouds wept, and there was little doubt that Dolce&Gabbana had succeeded in capturing all four seasons in one magnificent show.
Domenico and Stefano insist that more than an opulent fashtravaganza, or even a sublimely crafted couture piece, at its essence, Alta Moda is a lifestyle. And true to the Dolce&Gabbana dream, the gondolas that ushered the models to the show were waiting to whisk the guests away to the Rialto Bridge. Strewn with twinkling lights, the famous Rialto Fish Market, was transformed into a bustling street scene from the days of Venetian adventurer Marco Polo, complete with merchants peddling cured meats, cheeses, artisanal bread straight from the oven, and tantalising profiterole towers, and clients revelled in the rain and feasted alongside Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lopez, Rita Ora, Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker, P. Diddy and Jennifer Hudson well into the night. Nessun Dorma is Italian for Let No One Sleep, after all.
Photography by Branislav Simoncik & German Larkin
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s December 2021 issue