Dolce & Gabbana is in the midst of staging possibly the most glamorous takeover of Miami. While it may seem scaled back compared with July's lavish Alta Moda weekend in Sicily, held in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the label's answer to haute couture, the Miami showcase was an ode to artisanship.
Dolce & Gabbana took over the fabled 1930s night spot Surf Club to showcase its latest Alta Gioielleria, (high jewellery), Alto Moda (women’s haute couture) and Alto Sartoria (men’s) collections.
For more than nine decades, the Surf Club has been a playground of the rich, with famous faces such as Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra counted as fans. Steeped in old-school glamour, the venue was a fitting backdrop for Dolce & Gabbana's collections, which orbit beauty and sophistication.
Opening the show for the women's collection was a simple, fitted black dress that stretched from neck, to wrist to ankle — the sort normally seen on Kim Kardashian, who along with Monica Bellucci, Madonna and Isabella Rossellini was a muse for the collection. The garment was caught at the waist with the upright bars of a golden corset, a nod to the last collection in Sicily.
Following this came floor-grazing looks in chiffon, skillfully blended with a peep of lace beneath and dense beadwork teamed with opera gloves in barely there chiffon.
Amid the black came shocks of colour, such as a fluid, flower-covered gown in sugary pink and a floor-length feather cape dress in a blast of orange.
The roaring thirties also underpinned the men's collection, with Dolce & Gabbana looking to the Art Deco architecture that is so prevalent in Miami. It was reworked into fanning shapes and repeated geometric patterning running across loose silk trousers, open-fronted shirts and an exceptional suit made from a chessboard of midnight blue and black sequins.
A single-breasted tuxedo jacket had its traditional collar replaced with more decadent crystal edging. This framed rich vertical lines of sequins in an almost Matrix-like flash of silver, grey and black. Paired with silk trousers, the look showed why Dolce & Gabbana is considered a master of men's tailoring.
