“Two or three days before Garibaldi entered into Palermo, I was introduced to two English naval officers, who resided on those boats moored near the coast just to witness what was going on. One of them asked me what were these Italian volunteers really doing in Sicily. ‘They are coming to teach us good manners’ I answered. ‘But they wont succeed, because we are gods”

(The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, July 1958).

After having successfully branded the collective imagination with the SS2013 menswear show which had as protagonists seventy young men, all originally Sicilian, the Dolce and Gabbana duo anoint their style with the debut of their first ever Alta Moda collection in Taormina.

The voyage started for me on the Milanese runway on the 24^th June. The scugnizzo [typical Sicilian boy] who vehemently opened the show with a strong sense of purpose wearing oversize shorts cinched at the waist with a worn belt and a Pupi [traditional Sicilian puppets] printed shirt sleeve.

“The Sicilians will never wish to improve, as in their opinion they believe to be already perfect; their vanity is stronger than their poverty.”

(The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, July 1958).

 The archetypal archaic man, primitive and proud brought back to the runway all the certainties of Italian fashion which were lost in the past few years. Humble fashion, stripped to the bone, expressed an antique elegance made of iconic pieces, essential and perfect in their details. The special occasion suit, work clothes, the shirt fro the free time, the tank top, like underwear, the trousers gathered at the waist. Archetypes, typologies which go beyond the season, an intelligent reaction to the fast paced, even crazed tempo, imposed by the web. Leaving rhetoric behind we’re reverting back to those ancient values, typical of a neorealist Italy, told to us by visionary and raw directors like Pasolini.

 After two weeks, we were invited to Taormina to hide within one of the most beautiful Viscontian atmospheres imaginable. It was the 9^th July- along the sunny streets of the old town, one could witness a meandering religious procession which celebrated the Patron Saint Pancrazio. At the same time, in front of the smoky Etna Volcano, accompanied by the notes of the Cavalleria Rusticana, Dolce&Gabbana’s first Alta Moda collection debuted in the ex monastery of San Domenico.
In the same building where the director Michelangelo Antonioni chose to shoot the final, dramatic scenes of the film “L’Avventura”.

 “Today, like yesterday, the whitewash walls, the entrance patio, with its stone well, the 18^th century door, veneered as though it was lace, the large square cloister, and the smaller older one, the vestry, with its crumbling frescos, the convent church with its extraordinary marble altars, the splendid Italian gardens with their rare flowering plants, continue to create the rare atmosphere of this place, where the sacred and the profane mix with a past rich in history and tradition with the future.”

(A voyage with Alta Moda, Domenico Dolce e Stefano Gabbana, July 2012).

 At the entrance we were greeted by virgin brides and black widows caged within gigantic crinolines covered with lace. Hiding behind embroidered veils they stood still in the courtyard amid burgeoning bougainvillea and ancient cacti.

We settled into the lager cloister, seated on antique wooden kitchen chairs or damask armchairs, the seventy-three look show began.

 Kate King opened in a black lace dress where you could just see her bra, and the heavy satin skirt, slightly bell shaped, and her small feet, like those of a princess, defined the light and slender silhouette.

The suits and tailored coats, black or in double tweed were completely emptied of any excess, yet masterly structured and rounded on the hips, were alternated with a blaze of feminine dresses.
The carved organza pale pink balloon dress with matching pumps which Scarlett Johansson loved so much, the Capodimonte-vase dresses with the embossed embroidery in 3D effect ceramic, the black bobbin lace dress, hand made for hours, the white blouse with tatting lace collar, and the lingerie bodices enveloped by clouds of see-through tulle.

 In the middle of all this come Bianca Balti in a carved lace gown. Round her neck hung a large cross in chiselled gold with emerald and topaz, another debut for Dolce&Gabbana into Fine Jewellery.

Salvaging ancient crafts with obsolete, almost forgotten names, bobbin lace, crochet, carving, and intarsia. Nothing was relevant to what will be in fashion this year, to the seasonal trends, just a true consecration of style. Superb was the hand printed gown with embossed orange blossoms sweetly matched to lemon earrings encrusted with precious gems. Fresh flowers also decorated the hair of the young models. All over embroidery with shining crystals were present on the shoes and small bags. 

The emotion in the finale was overwhelming, with Monica Bellucci, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi, Laetitia Casta, Stephanie Seymour, Bianca Brandolini, Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, Grace e Hamish Bowles (to name but a few of the two hundred guests including eighty of the griffe’s best clientele from all over the world.) all enthusiastically bunched up around the designers. Domenico burst into tears, it was an unforgettable moment.

But the voyage hadn’t come to an end, yet and we all headed towards the vestry.

“On the 9th July in 1943, on the same day as the Patron Saint Pancrazio, a part of the San Domenico, occupied by the Italo-German army was bombed by the allies. The vestry, with its carved wooden cupboards, the streamlined choir, so beautifully whittled, the statues, the religious vestments, the painted canvasses were swept away in the explosion and suffered the most damage.”

(A voyage with Alta Moda, Domenico Dolce e Stefano Gabbana, July 2012).

 On that day the inebriating smell of the incense made those memories even more vivid. Outside the vestry, opened for the occasion, with the statue of San Domenico in full view, and from which the original stood three Papesses dressed in religious vestments made of Venetian damasked fabrics; hand loomed with gold thread, encircled by weeping widows in black lace suits and lace handkerchiefs. Hanging from the neck of the central, austere Papess, the magnified symbol of Sicily, with each single letter written in diamonds.

 And now the last passage, the Leopardesque enormous crinolines with hand painted flowers in the central cloister, the most ancient one, accompany us to dinner.

In the bay of Taomina, in a windless night, pregnant with the smell of jasmine and in front of the imposing San Domenico, with lights shining from each window, protected by white lace tents, the party came to fruition, amongst tables laden with traditional treats and royalty.

And this is how a wholly Italian dream came to an end.

Written by: Anna Dello Russo

Credits: Anna Dello Russo