Fresh of the opening of their exhibition Du Coeur à la Main—which traces the magnificence of 10 years of their Alta Moda creations in the salons of the Grand Palais —Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce staged a défilé on the eve of couture week in Paris. It served as a sort of crowning touch, much like the finishing flourish on a Sicilian cassata, the traditional cake with icing that mirrors the pastel swirls of Palermo’s Baroque palazzos.
“Les Siciliennes are going to Paris,” the designers said during a preview. By the opulent standards of their Dolce Gabbana Alta Moda presentations—which typically involve several days of extravagant guest entertaining in Italian locations—the show was a more pared-down affair. Yet, held in the lavishly restored Hôtel de la Marine, it still highlighted their impressive range, offering a tour-de-force exploration of the many dimensions of their fétiche color—black.
The enigmatic mystique of Sicilian culture lies at the heart of Stefano and Domenico’s oeuvre. The sacred and the profane, religious devotion and sensuality, simmering passion shrouded in a veil of composure and silence —these dramatic contrasts have shaped their repertoire from the outset, nearly 40 years ago. “We wanted to bring the authentic essence of who we are to Paris, the love for our homeland that is central to our work,” they explained.
Quintessentially Italian, the show nonetheless read as their homage to La Ville Lumière and its haute couture tradition. “Showing here is a dream come true,” they shared. “We are deeply grateful and honored because we don’t see ourselves as couturiers, but as sarti, tailors with a passion for the beauty of the fatto a mano, the art of handmade craftsmanship. Sicily and Paris share a deep historical connection,” they explained. Although the French ruled the Kingdom of Sicily only briefly in the early 14th century, their influence left a lasting imprint on the region’s culture and way of life. Even today, traces of French can be found in the local dialect; the Palermitan aristocracy once spoke fluent French and frequently sent their chefs to Paris to master the art of haute cuisine.
“To stand out against the unmatched Parisian flair for haute couture, the only option was to stay true to ourselves,” they reflected. And so, the Alta Moda Parigi collection was steeped in black as a counterpoint to the chic of the French capital: “Black is the ultimate symbol of Sicilian elegance, solemn yet extravagant, pure and alluring.”
A “devotional procession from Palermo to the Ville Lumière,” the show unfolded as a reimagining of their most seductive best-ofs, embellished with intricate lace embroidery, encrustations, cut-outs, inlays, and Baroque golden appliqué, as well as boasting diverse silhouettes, from slender to sensuous to lavishly voluminous. It was a parade of somber black widows carrying rosaries and gold crosses pinned on cinched-waist belts, alluring femme fatales wrapped in embellished cocoons and theatrical capes, and coquettish ingénues, sporting corsets, lingerie, and fishnet stockings only barely veiled under sheer showstoppers.
Attended mostly by devoted Dolce Gabbana’s Alta Moda clients dressed to the nines in the designers’ latest creations, the show was followed by a lavish dinner at the Ritz, where Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Catherine Deneuve, Eva Herzigova, and Monica Bellucci, with boyfriend Tim Burton in tow, fêted the designers, who cheerfully mingled late into the night.
