Dolce & Gabbana Presents “Sensuale”

What do you get when you subtract the maximalist opulence from a house perpetually revered for it? This season at Dolce and Gabbana, the answer unfolded in a collection where form became function and delight surfaced in the unexpected.

An impression—the very moment a gesture is fervently sketched– is incarnated on the runway. A diva by design yet romantic at heart, the Dolce & Gabbana woman is unmistakably an enigma that comes closer in reach with each collection the house sends down the runway.

La Dolce Vita—the world of the love affair between the paparazzi and the diva—is a signature etched in its runway settings. This season, the house slaps down a new order in its laced-up world of va-va-voom luxury.

Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

 

Last season, Dolce and Gabbana mused the modern-day diva, Kim Kardashian. Drenched in confidence and slightly downtempo, a series of it-girls emerged from videos of their diva inspiration, leaving the question of what exactly Kim’s role was. Collaborating as a curator, the reality tv star turned fashion A-lister dug through her extensive archives of the house, selecting iconic looks for the design duo to reinvent.

Snug lace panels with accentuated cuts exposed shoulders, backs, and necks. Oversized coats appeared enveloped in black, white, denim, and—to channel the inner Sicilian wife—leopard. Exposed with sheer materials and adorned in glints of eye-catching glitter embellishments, corsets injected a decadent dose of drama. Chokers bearing the four-letter word we can’t seem to get enough of—L-O-V-E—and onyx crosses dangling over bare chests summoned the house’s eternal muse, the romantic Sicilian.

In a thematic spectrum ranging from sensual Animalia to the cyber-Sicilian, the Italian fashion house sent out looks connected by its longstanding vision to materialize the sensuality the female form evokes. Perhaps a precursor to this season’s endeavors, Dolce & Gabbana once again took to their past to deliver its Fall/Winter 2023 collection.

Keeping with last season’s color palette, the house upheld its obsession with white, scarlet, and, most cherished of all, black. It’s not just a color. A token of elegance and solemnity, Black is perhaps the most emblematic of the Sicilian way of life. Embracing the drama of the darkness, Dolce & Gabbana discards spring’s frivolity.

Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

Nodding to Film Noir, Dolce and Gabbana’s femme fatale graced the runway, drawing her spectators deeper under her spell of multiplied lace and quivering feathers.

There’s always a balance between opposing forces in Dolce and Gabbana’s collections. With a knack for tipping the scales between polarities, the house relentlessly aims to subvert, surprise, and, above all else, seduce.

Using tailoring to synthesize the male and female, the house repurposed the traditional masculine suit to bring assertion and power upon the female form, best seen in look 12. Strong shoulders, slightly pointing upward, frame its wearer’s figure with a wide stance. Our attention is brought to focus on the sculpted frame of the bust. Revealing the midriff, double trousers in black and white reduce the waist to display the most telling of feminine traits: the hourglass figure. Ever desirable yet brooding with untouchable power, the Dolce & Gabbana woman is a force to be reckoned with.

Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

Undeniably, glitz and glamour are engraved within the Dolce & Gabbana name. Swapping a great deal of silver for a surfeit of gilded glints, the collection merged the Sicilian film star with the cyborg seductress. Looks 17 and 19 are striking examples of its ability to marry these seemingly dissonate elements.

Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

Layering a metallic bra—more closely resembling a shell—over sheer fabric in look 17, Dolce & Gabbana added a sheen of neo-futuristic edge to a material historically associated with vulnerability and sensuality. The latter example takes form in a jewel-encrusted gown topped off with a seemingly robotic corset, defying anatomy to cinch the waist in indestructible armor. By pairing a gown redolent of 80s party attire with a corset evocative of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the design duo took a new approach to the glamour deeply embedded within its ethos.

Its futuristic edge did not cease with the season’s gowns as outerwear, too, took on a metallic tinge. Most captivating was a gold, floor-length coat with black fur bordering its collars and cuffs. Constantly in search of new ways to repurpose classic staples, the house merged the traditional fur-clad diva with the frisson of the space age mode through foiled metallics.

Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana undoubtedly, share a flair for seeking out historical references and making them contemporary—sans nostalgia.

What do you get when you subtract the maximalist opulence from a house perpetually revered for it? This season at Dolce and Gabbana, the answer unfolded in a collection where form became function and delight surfaced in the unexpected.

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