«Powing to our character and the profession we do, we are forced, almost forced, to always look ahead, to start over each season from a blank sheet of paper. But luckily in over thirty years of men’s collections we have built an archive and this time we have decided to enter it, coming out surprised and proud and with an idea: to re-edit some of the garments from the 90s and 2000s ».
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have decided to explain the ideas and choices underlying the spring-summer 2023 collection that showed yesterday in Milan, 89 looks “propped up” by symbols of the Dolce & Gabbana maison, such as patchwork and textile processes that make us understand the ever stronger bond with craftsmanship. An honest, lucid and passionate explanation of those who have reflected in the archive and – ban on any unnecessary modesty – recognized the value of the work begun in 1990, when the first Dolce & Gabbana men’s collection was shown, five years after the birth of the maison.
An explanation useful to those who have always followed them, but at the same time almost superfluous for the brand’s younger fans or customers: the magic of the Re-Edition operation is that every look of the show seemed authentically new, even to those who, looking for to fish in the memory, he had already seen some pieces, such as tank tops or ripped jeans, worn with a rosary around the neck.
A challenge, that of convincing men to wear jewelry with ease, born with Dolce & Gabbana and with a symbol of the new male elegance (or aesthetic), David Beckham, who in 2000 even gave birth to the metrosexual neologism, which helped to overcome the conviction that it was only sexual orientation that influenced the way people dress.
«We don’t particularly like the word vintage, because it makes us think of something that has experienced a moment of glory and conquered a small or large place in the history of fashion, but cannot really revive – explain Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana -. Browsing the reselling sites we had a slightly different impression: there is curiosity about the past for vintage garments, because they are different, because they explain how we got to today, because they allow you to choose your look with even greater autonomy. “. 2022 was a year full of new initiatives for the maison, as was 2021 and yesterday in the front row there were many American, European and even Asian buyers and guests: “The home collection that we had previewed in Venice last summer with the Milan design week had another great showcase. For us it was an important step, which came almost 40 years after the beginning of our creative and entrepreneurial partnership – conclude Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana -. The transition from a fashion brand to a lifestyle symbol is credible only thanks to this path, of which we do not deny anything and which in certain aspects we have rediscovered by working on the archive “. Among the most recent projects, the brand’s entry into the gaming universe, new Nft and the spot for Tim, of which the stylists are the protagonists, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and music by Ennio Moricone. The title, The strength of connections , it would have been perfect also for the collection that showed yesterday. Connections between past and present and above all con the future, of fashion and more.