Sicily is as synonymous with Dolce & Gabbana as sharp tailoring and corsets. The Italian island is not only the birthplace of designer Domenico Dolce, but also a well from which Dolce and co-designer Stefano Gabbana have drawn inspiration for more than four decades.
Sicily is also where the brand started its Alta Moda journey – Dolce & Gabbana's answer to haute couture – in the town of Taormina in 2012, and where, with a sense of coming full circle, it returned for the 2026 season.
Across three lavish, magical days, Alta Moda unfolded as the highest expression of the house’s artisanal savoir-faire. The show was inspired by the colours, landscapes, traditions and visual excess of the island, elements that were retold across high jewellery, womenswear and menswear, as if island life itself had been taken apart and reassembled in gold, silk, velvet and flowers.
The opening event, devoted to Alta Gioielleria (high jewellery), took place in the historic cloisters of San Domenico. Within the former convent’s courtyard, 105 extraordinary pieces, created by hand within the brand's own atelier and each taking over a year to complete, were displayed.
The vibrant pink of Sicilian bougainvillaea flowers was translated into hand-painted, gold-enamelled petals, as another piece was covered in cherries in a shade of deep red almost good enough to eat. One of the central pieces, the Taormina Necklace, heavy with lemons and hand-hammered from titanium, was luminous with its seven layers of yellow and green enamel, and pave-set with diamonds, tsavorites and orange-yellow sapphires.
Catholic devotion has been a long-standing theme of the house, seen in the 2026 collection through the Sacred Heart Parure. The set was crafted in gold filigree, and studded with rubies, rubellites and pink tourmalines, while the Eleganza Collection echoed the Sicilian sunset in rhodolite garnets set in white and rose gold.
Elsewhere, plump cherubs nestled in necklaces of rococo swirls, and earrings carried delicate miniature paintings created with brushes barely two hairs wide.
Alta Moda (women's haute couture) was presented the following night at Radicepura Botanical Park, a lush garden in the grounds of the Palazzo Nobiliare, a grand house that appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II.
With Jennifer Lopez and Monica Bellucci – the latter's daughter opened the show – in attendance, the runway unfolded as a living tableau, with 100 models standing among palm trees and thousands of other plants and flowers.
The show opened with a spoken narrative: “There are places that belong to mortals, and there are places that belong to the gods.”
The collection was titled Le Devote delle Dee dell’Olimpo – the devotees of the Olympian goddesses – and it drew on Sicily’s historical place within the European Grand Tour when travellers wandered through the island in search of its ruins, landscapes and antiquities, which attracted aristocrats and artists alike. Through the eyes of Dolce and Gabbana, these historical women became the devotees of earthly beauty, elevated into something divine.
Flowers were the defining motif, appearing everywhere: as enormous blooms tumbling over full, netted skirts, delicate petals scattered across tulle, exuberant applique spreading across bodices, and needlepoint embroidery covering exaggerated silhouettes.
The opening look established the mood, a one-shouldered gown of black illusion tulle, with pannier-like hips and blanketed in handcrafted flowers. In her hair, the model wore a spray of blue baby's breath; in her hands, she carried a bouquet.
Then came the quintessential Dolce & Gabbana woman, the glamorous “Sicilian Widow” in a black, lace-trimmed veil. Tulle dresses revealed glimpses of lingerie beneath, and capes rippled behind the body, weighted with ornamental gold embroideries.
The collection moved through the house’s familiar historical references with the confidence of a grand theatrical production, including 1930s fringed shawl coats, slip dresses, corsetry and hoop skirts.
The materials were no less extravagant. Chiffon, velvet, silk satin, double organza, illusion tulle, Chantilly lace, macrame, mikado, brocade and fil coupe were layered with bullion embroidery, bugle beads, crystals, resin and gold leaf. Several looks were sculpted to echo Sicilian pottery, while the finale was a quartet of wide-skirted tulle confections, trailing veils and flowers, in tones of pinks, blues and sunset yellow. The effect was a particular type of Mediterranean femininity – regal, theatrical and faintly mournful, told through exquisite craftsmanship.
The third and final act of this Sicilian trilogy was held inside the historic Greco-Roman Teatro Antico, an ancient amphitheatre facing Mount Etna, serving as the staging for the Alta Sartoria (men’s haute couture) collection. Like the previous night, this was no ordinary runway, but a stage depicting village life in the previous century.
The darling of the World Cup, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland was in attendance, as too was White Lotus star Theo James.
Again the scene was set with a spoken narrative: “In Sicily, honour is not a concept.” This was interpreted as billowing capes; fluid, collarless shirts; watered silk trousers tucked into tall boots; high-necked lace tops worn under sharp-shouldered jackets; and waistcoats shortened into high-waisted cummerbunds, worn with cream lace shirts. Bared torsos and oiled black hair created an air of theatrical machismo, but this was so much more than posturing.
A great coat was covered in delicate stitches, depicting the very arena in which we sat, while a languid robe was cut from blood-red velvet and smothered in dense gold threadworm, nodding to a former Sicilian resident, the author Oscar Wilde.
Decadent brooches or oversized flowers graced lapels, while jacket fronts were decorated with chains of gems that looped around the buttons. Shirts were made in cutwork or fronted with sequins, while a top-and-shorts set, worn under a shaggy coat, was cut from white lace scattered with crystals.
Dolce & Gabbana is a brand rooted in the theatrical and, as such, has in the past been guilty of allowing its runway shows to stray a fraction too close to costume.
This turnout, however, was nothing less than a spectacular return to form and the exceptional know-how and artisanal skill that define the brand. Rooted in Italian culture, this was a celebration of the island and its traditions, where devotion is expressed through an obsessive attention to detail – and a patient hand.
Never stronger than when exploring the beautiful excess of the two designers' own culture, beauty in the hands of Dolce & Gabbana is not simply something to be admired; it is elevated to something closer to worship.
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