It’s fitting that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana chose Taormina’s historic Greco-Roman Teatro Antico as a venue for their Alta Sartoria collection. The multi-day affair devoted to their haute couture for women and men, as well as their increasingly successful high jewelry, is a performance of operatic scale, complete with family style dinners, late night dance parties, and front row cameos by World Cup superstar Erling Haaland and White Lotus hottie Theo James.
The show began as the sun set on the other side of Mount Etna. With the sky darkening and the candles in the amphitheater’s upper tiers flickering to life, a pre-runway spectacle that took its outline from Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana played out. Local farmers and fishermen greeted each other warmly and picked fights. Black-clad widows wagged their fingers or pinched cheeks, and a shepherd lingered on the outskirts of the scene. The 1890 verismo opera is a story of love—and life—lost; honor is not a matter that Sicilians take lightly, a voiceover reminded us.
Photo: Luca Stefanon
The stage duly set, models began emerging from backstage, only the roles they inhabited weren’t Mascagni’s, but those of would-be audience members, as if they had assembled for a gala opening night in black tie tuxedos, opera cloaks, and glossy riding boots. Lapels were laden with medallions, and there was enough gold bullion embroidery to sink one of the boats in Taormina Bay. Dolce and Gabbana are renowned for exacting tailoring, but these suits were fluid and often unstructured: an asymmetric sash draped from a jacket or the jacket was replaced by a bejeweled silk pajama shirt, and pants were pleated and swishy with full, deep breaks. The odd couple of muscle tees depicted the lush local landscape or dripped with trompe l’oeil chains.
Photo: Luca Stefanon
