Dolce & Gabbana: Italian fashion enters theater of the weird in Rome exhibition

One full-length cloak depicted a canal scene in Venice. Another dress was made up entirely of purple flowers. A men’s maroon and gold suit consisted of a jacket that hung to the knees.

Welcome to the world of Dolce & Gabbana where Italian fashion launches into the realm of absurd. Since its formation in 1985 on a budget so small they used friends as models, Dolce & Gabbana has become one of the top designers in the world with last year’s sales topping nearly €2 billion.

If anything represents Italy’s sense of style, even more than its cars, food and wine, it’s fashion. Gucci. Versace. Armani. The Italian designers are as recognizable as pasta and pizza. 

Italy has taught me how to dress. Living in Rome the last 11 years, nearly my entire wardrobe is Italian. Shoes. Suits. Shirts. Even my bathrobes are Italian. 

Of course, none of it was bought at Dolce & Gabbana.

My introduction to D&G came shortly after I retired here in 2014. I walked by the D&G store near the Spanish Steps and saw a pair of handsome men’s shoes in the display window. Then I looked at the price.

€3,950.

No thanks. I think I’ll pay four months rent instead.

Last week I jumped head first into the Dolce & Gabbana world without buying so much as a €500 scarf. D&G is holding a beautiful, extravagant exhibit at Palazzo delle Esposizioni called Dal Cuore alle Mani  (From the Heart to the Hands). 

It features wild D&G outfits displayed on runways all over the world. It combines the clothes with art, music, film clips and lighting to form a sense of Italian style that you can’t get from shopping along Via dei Condotti.   

But I’m sure not wearing a suit with a maroon and gold jacket hanging by my knees. Which led me to one question.

Who buys this stuff?

Dolce & Gabbana exhibition

The Palazzo delle Esposizioni is less than a mile north of the Colosseum. It’s a beautiful neoclassical building built in 1877 with a wide, grand staircase and a towering, arched entryway. It’s an appropriate setting for a company that takes its designs from much of Italy around it.

The exhibition consists of 14 rooms, each with its own theme. I walked into the first room and looked up to a nine-level tower lined with costumes from another world. The Internet doesn’t have enough cyberspace to describe them. 

Bamboo miniskirts. Men’s sportcoats decorated with white daisies. Dresses depicting St. Peter’s cupola. 

Lining the walls were gold-framed paintings of elaborately dressed women down through the ages. As D&G literature states, it “evokes a past that never really went away.” That doesn’t quite explain the painting of a woman, apparently French artist and actress Anh Duong, at a picnic naked.

From this giant fashion tower I dipped into this black room lit by dozens of huge crystal chandeliers. I saw miniskirts made entirely of giant sequins. Orchestra music poured into the room where I transitioned to a room full of 18th and 19th century gowns and tuxes.

Then came the Sicilian room. It was decorated in bright pastel colors typical of Sicilian design with multi-colored tile floors and a traditional cart carrying a woman wearing a dress printed with angels. Room 5 was filled with white dresses that looked like Baroque marble. Mannequins looked like they were women stuck inside a wedding cake.

There’s also a room filled with design materials and a small theater where you see Dolce & Gabbana at work. Yes, there is a Dolce and Gabbana.

Dolce & Gabbana history

Domenico Dolce, 66, was born in the small Sicilian town of Polizzi Generosa to a father who was a tailor and a mother with a particular business acumen. Domenico took an interest in clothes from his father who often went to Milan to source fabrics.

By the time he was 6, Domenico was designing his clothes. He attended the Instituto Marangoni in Milan and in 1980 began working for designer Giorgio Correggiari where he met co-worker Stefano Gabbana. In 1982 the two opened a fashion consulting studio and then launched Dolce & Gabbana in 1984.

In 1986, they opened their first store in Milan. Strapped for cash, they not only used friends as models but Dolce used a bedsheet for a stage curtain. However, their designs hit. By 1989 they were designing menswear and swimsuits. In 1990 they began exporting to Japan and the United States, had their first show in the U.S. and launched the fragrances Pour Home and Pour Femme.

In 1991 they won the Woolwork Award for the most innovative men’s collection of the year and FHM named D&G Designer of the Year in 1996 and ‘97. In 2003, GQ named Dolce and Gabbana Men of the Year.

They have been telling their story ever since. Their designs are influenced by Italian film history, art and Dolce’s Sicilian roots. They want their clothes to tell a story.

As they grew famous, so did their notoriety, not all of it good. In 2015 they came out against gay adoption, which seemed odd as they were a couple until 2003. While they still work together, they became targets of an online campaign entitled #BoycottDolceGabbana which collected 30,000 signatures, including Elton John and Madonna.

Another 10,000 signed a petition requesting Macy’s and Debenhams, a worldwide fashion chain, to stop stocking D&G items. The pair issued an apology.

Then they called for a boycott of Elton John.

Who buys this stuff?

I left the exhibit still puzzled. Who would wear a dress made up entirely of purple flowers? You’d get attacked by bees. Where would you wear a bamboo miniskirt? At a wedding in the Amazon?

Rome’s Metro subway trains have TVs that often have loops of fashion shows from around the country. The clothes look more like art than clothes. Dolce & Gabbana’s collection takes those and injects them with 100 counts of estrogen.

But someone buys it. They sold €1.9 billion in the year ending in March 2024. That’s a 19 percent increase over 2023. 

No, you won’t find the clothes in the exhibit at your average D&G store in Santa Monica. Customers make appointments with D&G stylists for personal showings in showrooms in Milan and Dubai. They’re extremely private, as are the prices. Many of the buyers don’t wear the clothes. They’re collectors. They merely display them. 

My visit

Still curious, I returned to the Dolce & Gabbana store in Piazza di Spagna for my first time in 11 years. The Spagna Metro station was lined with beautiful murals and videos of flawless Dolce & Gabbana models sunning and splashing in turquoise waters.

This time the store’s display windows didn’t have many prices – except one. A mannequin dressed in summer wear consisted of a plain white shortsleeve shirt (€650), shorts printed with various Rome landmarks (€995), beige knit loafers (€795) and a beige flatcap (€350). 

Total: €2,790.

I entered and saw about a dozen clerks with matching white “MADE IN ITALY” T-shirts. I told them I was Christmas shopping. Even bracing for sticker shock, the prices poleaxed me. 

I saw one handbag, made of hand-carved gold and sporting a – get this – clock, priced for €13,000. A scarf was €500. A purple and white dress was €1,950. 

Before anyone bends their liberal knee and shouts about how many people €2,790 can feed, I’m as liberal as anyone but won’t judge these buyers. It’s all perspective. The next day in the little town of Valmontone (which will be featured in Friday’s www.travelazio.it), I spent €50 on lunch for two.

How many people would $50 feed in South Sudan?

The Dolce & Gabbana exhibition is €18 and goes to Aug. 13.