It is also the name of the event dedicated to Men’s Haute Couture and Women’s Haute Couture held in Florence 2-4 September, which included a jewellery exhibition in the Cloister of Santa Maria Novella, two fashion shows, at the Palazzo Vecchio in the Hall of the Five Hundred and in the gardens of Villa Bardini, and an exhibition of masterpieces of the 38 artisans that took part in the event.
And what brought Dolce & Gabbana to Florence is exactly that craftsmanship, the love for handmade and the wisdom in making and creating beauty.
Opening the men’s fashion show, on a runway shaped like a Florentine lily are tunics decorated with the coat of arms of the city, the birthplace of the Renaissance period that brought magnificence and splendour, and brocade t-shirts with the portraits of Lorenzo and Cosimo de Medici.
Embroidered velvet tuxedo jacket with details in moiré, shirt with bow, and silk trousers. Coats and gowns in printed and painted silk radzimir with details in velvet representing the frescoes of the Hall of the Five Hundred painted by the Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari.
For the women’s collection, a hand-painted Brunelleschi’s dome on a wide silk corolla skirt where shades of pink and peach blend on a tulle and double organza bodice. Inlaid, lurex and satin motifs for kaftans, skirts and coats with most famous views of Florence.
A magnificent, maize-coloured feather dress in an hourglass silhouette and a 1930s longuette skirt in white lace.
And flowers as a symbol of rebirth, fragile but powerful in evoking the awakening of nature, hand-painted on linen and silk, embroidered in raffia or in relief on the mini dress worn by Chiara Scelsi.
A floral palette made of poppies, calla lilies, roses, cornflowers, peonies with intense, bright colours that takes us back to an ancient world of simplicity and beauty.
By Elisa Nascimbene for Valmont Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week
