Dolce & Gabbana shines a thousand lights in Milan

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Jun 22, 2021

Dolce & Gabbana lit up Milan on Saturday, as the luxury label celebrated its return to the runway with a show that sparkled with the glittering colours of the night. Entitled "DG Light Therapy," the brand's menswear collection for Spring/Summer 2022 took inspiration from the tradition of artistic light shows in southern Italy, but also from the aesthetic of the 2000s, surfing the current wave of nostalgia for the first decade of this millennium, a trend that is particularly popular with Gen Z, the label's clear target audience for several seasons now. 

It's not the first time that the typical light shows of Mezzogiorno have inspired fashion. A year ago, Maria Grazia Chiuri made them the central theme of her Cruise 2021 collection for Dior, revealed in Lecce, Apulia, in a show held behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana already mined this particular seam of inspiration themselves in 2011, for their Spring/Summer 2012 womenswear collection. On Saturday they created the same illuminated wonderland, setting up aches, gateways and rosettes covered in multicoloured bulbs that reflected off the mirrored runway for a dazzling interplay of lights.

The overriding atmosphere was that of a party backed up by a techy night club soundtrack. Festoons of lights were reimagined in a series of dark-hued pieces, which were brightened up with vibrant decorations, as well as in knitwear, jackets, trousers, shoes and even a bucket hat practically sagging under the weight of multicoloured stones.

Ripped denim looks and white outfits were also decorated with precious adornments in a thousand colours, gilt embroidery, silvery metallic accessories and pearls. Even the briefs were embroidered with gemstones, which also appeared in the side bands of trousers and exploded like sparkling fireworks across a black tulle top, while crystals decorated the collars of t-shirts like a fine lace. 

It was all about sparkle, but the collection's link with the light shows ran deeper. The designers also picked up on the motifs and patterns of the illuminations, particularly the vibrant, sun-like rosettes, which they reproduced in prints on loose short-sleeved shirts or reworked in treatments featuring blurred photos, seen on silk pyjamas that were matched with flowing dressing gowns for guaranteed optical impact. 

On top of this, the designers added flashy jewellery, including brooches pinned onto the lapels of elegant dark-toned velvet jackets and cascades of chains and necklaces, which jangled together over sensual shirts, which were left unbuttoned down to the navel. This sexy edge could also be seen in transparent pieces and the revealing gaps of loose knits, as well as in fishnet t-shirts and both trousers and tops made from lace. 

The creative duo even went so far as to place veritable prince crowns on the heads of certain models, who were humorously dressed in sports ensembles – shorts, football shirts and tracksuits – featuring the green, white and red of the Italian flag, a cheeky nod to Euro 2020, where the Squadra Azzurra just qualified for the round of 16.