Mariacarla Boscono Wore Dolce Gabbana Alta Moda for Her Sicilian Wedding to Olympic Athlete Claudio Stecchi
Mariacarla Boscono and the Olympic pole vaulter Claudio Stecchi met at a time in their lives when neither of them was looking to date. And yet for the supermodel, it was “love at first sight.”
“We couldn’t really date as we were always in different places,” she tells Vogue. “He split his time between Rome and Florence and traveled a lot, while I was in New York. We fell in love like in the old days—by correspondence, sending notes and letters. We wrote to each other a lot. We chatted for six hours once as we were getting to know each other. I remember waking up every morning hoping to find a message from him but no, he’d make me wait until the afternoon. That’s how we fell in love—slowly. For me, it was always interesting to listen to him, even if what he was saying was perhaps something very simple. The connection was immediate, even before we had a proper date.”
For the ceremony on Saturday, October 5, Boscono wore a custom Dolce Gabbana Alta Moda wedding dress, made with lace and upcycled vintage Sicilian fabrics. Each part of the dress uses different pieces of lace in different shades. The cape worn for the ceremony was made of 2000 meters of pleated tulle strips, and was worn with a crown of porcelain flowers embellished with small crystals. Throughout the day, she wore three different looks including stretch tulle stocking boots embroidered with flowers and lace elements as well as macramé, silk, velvet, and crystal details.
“The dress came about because Ramona [Boscono’s stylist] and I—we’ve obviously long been accomplices in creating my looks, and are also close friends—weren’t interested in any specific brand or particular dress, but rather in a story we wanted to tell about the wedding. It started, therefore, after we chose the location, Bagheria, a small city in Sicily. We did a lot of research, which is one of the things we love to do most. After that, everything came together. I didn’t wear a traditional wedding dress but one that began with traditional elements but then went on to incorporate contemporary references linked to films, books, and photography.”
The collaboration with Dolce Gabanna was one Mariacarla describes as “extremely easy,” with the looks coming together over the course of a few meetings. “In New York, Domenico and I chatted and looked at books,” she recalls. “We wanted to tell the story of a bride who made a dress by opening all her family’s trunks and using the lace and fabrics that she found and that once belonged to her grandmothers and great-grandmothers, creating a garment that incorporates love and family.”
The jewelry was also created by the Dolce Gabbana atelier. “We were looking for a constant element for all three outfits; a piece of jewellery that reflects who I have been over the years. We settled on a porcelain rose crown, worn as if it were a crown of thorns. I was a true ‘martyr of romance.’ The look was completed by gloves and a bustier. The boots were hand-embroidered and designed especially for me, and they evolved from fitting to fitting. They, too, look like they were assembled from lace from a family’s trunk. Each piece is extremely sophisticated, but they are also very different from the pieces one usually sees at a wedding. We still had all the traditional items in gold and blue, something borrowed and something new, but we were pretty easygoing with that. We also wore family jewelry. Especially me: I always wear a chain that my mum gave me.” The wedding rings were by Pomellato.
For the ceremony, Stecchi wore a rust brown mohair wool suit with a shawl jacket and wide-leg trousers by Zegna. The look was completed by a wool muslin tab collar shirt and leather slip-on evening shoes. The groom also wore a 1930s Pennisi brooch in platinum and diamonds by Kutchinsky from Gioelleria Pennisi.
The wedding was held at the Villa Valguarnera in Bagheria. “Princess Vittoria opened the doors of her family’s estate to us and let us celebrate our wedding there. It is a magical place that has so much history and tradition: it is an authentic place, and it is a wonderful story of an all-Italian beauty, which just had to be celebrated. That is why we also wanted it as it was, without adding too many decorations. Even the floral arrangements felt like they were part of the garden.” Officiating at the ceremony was Natalia Vodianova, a close friend of the couple.
“At dinner, there was a performance by an incredible singer, Giorgia, who sang classics by Nina Simone, Mina, and Patty Pravo, and accompanied us all throughout the evening,” says Mariacarla. “For the wedding ceremony, she wore a very light Swarovski-covered veil and performed from a window, because we wanted her to have an air of mystery. She sang ‘Il cielo in una stanza’ a cappella.”
The menu was all Sicilian dishes, made with local seasonal produce. “The wedding cake was made in a convent where they follow a 100-year-old secret recipe, which is very special,” the bride adds. Complementing the dishes were fine wines from Berlucchi, a historic winery that dates back to the 1600s.
Throughout the day, Mariacarla wore three wedding dresses. “Each dress change was about the idea of the bride building up her dress and then eventually deconstructing it. The second outfit is very elegant, and I really liked the lightness of this almost monastic creation. We decided to make it very transparent, allowing a glimpse of the lingerie.”
