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Show Report

Show Report: Dolce & Gabbana A/W 18 Womenswear

by India Doyle on 25 February 2018

India Doyle reports on the Dolce & Gabbana A/W 18 womenswear show.

India Doyle reports on the Dolce & Gabbana A/W 18 womenswear show.

When Anna Wintour gets up and leaves the front row, you’ve probably kept the audience waiting too long. The 45-minute delay at Dolce e Gabbana’s A/W 18 show certainly put a big black mark over the collection. And what were we waiting for?

Drones, apparently. After finally managing to get all of the guests to switch off their wifi, a series of handbags came floating out of the shining gold doors at the end of the runway. They hovered for a while on the catwalk before going back. Then the show began. As a marketing gimmick, I could have done without it. But the majority of the guests seemed to absolutely love it. There was plenty of ‘oohing’ and applause.

Dolce e Gabbana enjoy dabbling with novelty. For the last few seasons, they’ve employed an army of millennial influencers to walk in their shows. The drones were a new and strange addition, a futuristic debut totally at odds with the clothes.

The theme was ‘Fashion Devotion’ and from behind a cherub-filled, pseudo-religious facade emerged an endless stream of looks. The first was classic Dolce, with black lace and a ‘fashion sinner’ slogan. It harked back to an era when the brand punched high with super sexualised designs: an old-school mix of Italian glamour and playful Catholic references. It was good. There was a handful of black and lace looks amidst far more ostentatious designs; tight bandeau dresses, high waisted cycling shorts, corsets and a long-sleeved, mid-length lace dress, which all delivered. But the appeal of these pieces was the element of nostalgia and romance, not tech or future.

Dolce & Gabbana A/W 18 Womenswear

The many looks that made up the rest of the collection were decadent. Amongst these were numerous embellished jackets and bejewelled headpieces; sequinned crop tops and embroidered jeans. Statements such as 'Fashion is Beauty' ran down the side of sweatshirts and jersey jackets. A tiered, mint green dress embodied the Italian duo’s sense of theatre in a subtler way, and tiger-print fur coat evoked classic Italian elegance. Also eye-catching was a zebra coat complete with a zebra head hood. An obvious play for the millennial vote.

It seems as though Dolce e Gabbana are now more in the business of entertaining than they are of designing. Their audience wants to have fun, and the pair can deftly throw a good sartorial party. It’s not a bad thing but it doesn’t necessarily belong in high fashion. At least not how the industry currently understands it, although recently appealing to the industry hasn’t seemed to be a priority for the brand. It seems the future is theirs for the taking, so long as there’s wifi.

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