Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Trades Crystals for Crochet
In the new series What I Loved, Harper’s Bazaar editors highlight one standout look from Couture Week.
You can always count on Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda for megawatt Italian glamour. In the 11 years since they launched their made-to-measure label with a series of traveling shows, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have brought private clients on a grand tour of 12 Italian cities including Venice, Como, and Syracuse, and delivered such spectacular feats of fabulous excess as a coat hand-embellished with 20,000 crystals and a dress with a 13-foot train. But in their Fall 2023 collection shown yesterday at the UNESCO World Heritage site Alberobello in the southern Italian region of Puglia, there was was at least an order of magnitude fewer crystals. Instead, the lineup was mostly colored like a black-and-white Italian neorealist film and filled with looks like a crochet dress made using ancient masserie handcraft techniques that were elegant in their restraint.
“The most important word for this collection is authenticity,” Gabbana declared in a pre-show press conference. The collection was a homecoming of sorts—Dolce is from Sicily, just off the toe of Italy’s boot—and both designers were in a nostalgic state of mind, reminiscing about how their nonnas used to serve homemade bread with olive oil and love at Saturday family meals. “Fatto al mano is the sense in which people make something that matters,” added Dolce, using the Italian phrase for handmade.
As guests walked to the show venue in Alberobello’s central square, they passed between traditional trulli limestone huts with conical roofs, some dating from as early as the mid-14th century. Local craftspeople people stood by to demonstrate the crochet, embroidery, basket-weaving, and garland-making techniques that inspired looks in the collection like a straw-colored minidress woven with tube-shaped Mikado elements and a violet tulle maxidress embroidered with organza flowers.
A number of the models wore giant cone hats shaped like trulli, while others had their hair tied back with Monica Vitti-esque headscarves and carried net market bags or woven baskets. Tanya McQuoid would certainly approve.
There was so much gorgeous Mediterranean sensuality on display in transparent layers of tulle, chiffon, organza and lace worn over black lingerie, but the looks I loved most were the crochet pieces: a miniskirt suit and two dresses made with the help of Alberobello residents. “All the local people make crochet, and we organized the champions,” says Dolce. Made-to-measure clothes are, by definition, handmade, but there’s something extra lovely about knowing the traditions have been passed down through a family for generations.
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