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It was 2012 when Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana decided to present their first haute couture collection with an event outside the couture weeks, in an unexpected place, Taormina, and with a few dozen guests from all over the world, already customers of the maison and potential buyers of the new collection. It was the beginning of a real grand tour, which in ten (eleven, actually) took haute couture from Sicily to Venice, from Naples to Lake Como, passing through Milan, with a fashion show on the stage of the Scala and at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and returning to Sicily, in the summer of 2022.
From a single fashion show to a “long weekend”
This year the choice fell on Puglia and the annual event, since that “distant” 2012, has turned (almost) into a «Dolce&Gabbana high fashion fashion week», as Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said laughing. From the Taormina fashion show dedicated to the women’s collection, we have moved on to a small (large) series of chained events dedicated to haute couture (exclusive collections for men) and high jewelery for women and men (which include pieces of haute horlogerie). From a few dozen guests we reached 500, from all over the world (Chinese customers have also returned to Puglia): «We all know them personally, with each of them we have created a special relationship, almost friendship, as happened once with the tailors and couturiers», said the two stylists and entrepreneurs, who will begin the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of their brand in September. Some customers landed in Bari or Brindisi at the beginning of last week, to enjoy the Val d’Itria without any hurry, as this area of Italy almost naturally “imposes”.
Jewels among the secular olive trees
Helen Mirren also took part in the presentation of the fine jewelery among the centuries-old (sometimes thousand-year-old) olive trees of Pettolecchia, both as a “friend” of Dolce&Gabbana, and as an honorary citizen of Puglia (the actress has had a home here for some time), and as spokesperson for “Save the olives”, a non-profit association founded in 2017 in Tricase (Lecce) to raise awareness of the Xylella epidemic that has decimated olive trees (above, three necklaces: one inspired by olive trees, one by rhododendrons and one by large felines, with a 59-carat stone in the center).
A book to tell the story of fine jewelry
In Pettolecchia the book Dolce&Gabbana Alta Gioielleria (cover above) was previewed. Masterpieces of high jewellery, curated by jewelery historian Carol Woolton and published by Rizzoli, due out in September 2023 but pre-orderable on the maison’s website or on Rizzoli’s website, almost 400 pages in which the jewels (not all, it would be impossible) they are “told”, accompanied by preparatory sketches and links with Italian art or architecture.