Picture a Sunday morning in Italy. In a market square, a funeral is taking place, and processional mourners in black mingle with townspeople in their Sunday best. Best doesn’t just mean smart, though: there are sequins and rhinestones and tassels and three-piece brocade suits, even a girl decked out like a Tuscan hay bale. This is Sunday Best, Dolce-style – and Liam Payne, Cardi B and Stevie Wonder (Stevie Wonder!) are the main acts, along with an embarrassment of supermodels and influencers redefining the house codes. Here are five things to know about the Spring 2019 Dolce & Gabbana scrum.
The ’90s Supers are back
Photo: Indigital.tv
The Milanese catwalks have possessed a distinctly walnutty texture and Dolce & Gabbana were in agreement: wrinkles are in for spring! As the show began to the sound of pealing church bells, two rows of black lace-and satin-clad women streamed through the doors of the the theatre venue holding little candles and wearing lace veils. Meanwhile at the other end of the catwalk, a tableau was unveiled, revealing Monica Bellucci in all her polka dotted glory, along with Eva Herzigova, Carla Bruni, Helena Christensen and Karen Elson.
But the catwalk was inclusive
Photo: Indigital.tv
“#DGFAMILY” proclaimed one sweater, no empty sentiment given the truly diverse nature of the runway which celebrated age, size and sexuality. Dolce & Gabbana have enlisted the help of a millennial cast of models with Instagram pedigree for the past few seasons; here, the designers went back to their roots. From Isabella Rossellini and her children Roberto and Elettra and grandson Ronin, to teen star Cameron Dallas and his sister and mother, to full-figured bombshells Ashley Graham and Tess McMillan, K-pop superstar Jessica Jung and Chinese actress Dilraba Dilmirat, and aristos Emma Weymouth and Kitty Spencer – a Noah’s arc of fashion favorites came down the catwalk to riotous applause.
Dolce’s codes endure – but bows are still sprouting up everywhere
Photo: Indigital.tv
Trend-wise, Dolce stuck to its well-established codes: Italian-infused maximalism with a large dollop of literalism (one model was dressed as a Tuscan hay bale, which made all the raffia trim we’ve seen this week look, well, weak). As the designers told Vogue in June, at the menswear show, “what the new generation wants from us most is our classics”. Hence, this was a retrospective of sorts: plenty of bombastic ball gowns, outré suiting, figure-hugging black lace and madcap accessories. What was new, relatively speaking? Giant couture-style bows, which trimmed the teased locks of numerous models, transformed into beautiful Easter eggs.
The parasol is the new handbag
Photo: Indigital.tv
The only accessory your polka dot pyjama suit requires? A fringed retro parasol, apparently. As ever in Italy, the rule is: the bigger; the better.
Your slides should come with AstroTurf
Photo: Indigital.tv
Spent the summer slapping around town and country in a pair of rubber slide sandals? Next season look out for AstroTurf foot beds, one of the more smile-inducing shoes on the Dolce catwalk, and a happy counterpart to endless crystal-smothered metallic platform sandals that came with the majority of the looks.
Now Read: Backstage: Dive Into Giorgio Armani’s Atmospheric Spring 2019 Collection
This article first appeared on Vogue.co.uk
