Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Sartoria men’s fashion shows are first and foremost cultural events. They represent for the duo not an exercise in style but an interpretation and celebration of Italian popular culture, from the sacred to the profane.
Every year for more than a decade, this grand tour around the Italian peninsula zeroes in on a particular location, always one that is steeped in regional Italian tradition. In the past they have touched down in Sicily and Puglia, cities of art such as Venice and Florence. Most recently, however, they chose to pay homage to Sardinia, an unique island steeped in Roman Catholic history but also deeply influenced by the varied cultures that have at times held sway over it, from Arabic to Greek to Catalan.
The three-day fashion event brought hundreds of the brand’s most passionate private customers from around the world, culminating in a party and private concert by Katy Perry. The weekend began with the women’s haute couture and high jewelry fashion shows in the Roman ruins of ancient Nora and continued with the men’s haute tailoring. The men’s show was more of a pageant than a fashion show, one that drew inspiration from annual Sant’Efisio parade which takes place every May 1. Saint Ephysius, according to Christian legend, was a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity in Sardinia and was executed by the Roman governor when he refused to recant.
Fifteen hundred locals opened the show with a procession that included wagons pulled by giant oxen, “tenore” polyphonic singers, and folklore groups including the Mamuthones, men clad in wooden masks, cloaks of goatskins, and 20 kilos of cowbells. These rather unsettling figures are said to predate Sardinia’s Christianity, with a tradition going back 2,000 years, yet appear in one small area of the island on key days in the Catholic calendar.
“For us to observe the smiles of this population parading in front of seven hundred customers from Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mexico, India, big businessmen like Jeff Bezos, stars like Theo James, Lucien Laviscount, Maluma—people who don’t even imagine what ancestral significance all this has—is something moving. It is our most sincere way to tell the love we have for the most genuine culture of Italy,” Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana explain.
The fashion show that followed brought the designers’ precious haute couture to the catwalk, but this time bearing the imprint of style gleaned from Sardinian culture. The peasant sense of style and decorum in Italy—something that underpinned Dolce & Gabbana’s identity from day one—is understood as both a moral form and an aesthetic demonstration. Double-breasted suits were swathed in silk ribbons; white shirts with lace and flounces had collars raised very high, up to the ears. Blouses, robes, and boleros were heavily embroidered.
“We have passed on the strong Spanish influences that have deeply marked this island. In Valencia,” says Stefano Gabbana, “I found a piece of fabric identical to what some ladies showed me, in their costumes, here in Sardinia.”
Metallic waist corsages, bodices of precious stones, huge capes, and ponchos were created with masses of virgin wool using an ancient Sardinian weaving technique, Pibiones, which translates from the Sardo dialect as “grapes.” It is a heavy fabric woven with pom-poms, a technique found in draperies, tapestries, and wedding bedspreads.
“But one of the pieces of the tradition that fascinated us the most and made us think that there were almost fashionable elements in the culture of Sardinian male costume, is a sort of skirt, worn over pants by Sardinian shepherds,” says Domenico Dolce. “It’s a very strong image that delivers an elaborate, but also practical, idea of the way of dressing.”