The opening look of Dolce & Gabbana’s fall ’18 show was relatively modest, a white button-down shirt under a lace pinafore top with a black lace veil and midi-skirt — save for the words “Fashion Sinner” printed loudly across the chest in crystal-embellished letter patches.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana dubbed their new fall ’18 collection “Fashion Devotion” and showed, fittingly, on Sunday at Milan Fashion Week — though any reverence they may have had for the Lord’s Day was dampened by the arrival of handbags via drone (or heightened, if you interpreted the stunt as a handbag communion of sorts).
The collection was full of their signature over-the-top embellishments, from the lace trimmings, sequined dresses and brocade suits to the dark florals and bejeweled jackets, crowns and shoes (bejeweled everything, actually).
One model wore wings over an oversized silk bomber jacket, while another donned a knit cap so tall that it mimicked the Pope’s mitre. Yet another carried a gold handbag shaped like a thurible (the device in which incense is burned in the Catholic church). Shoes were unsurprisingly bedazzled in Vatican-worthy gilded motifs, and there were even papal(like) socks!
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The subject of the show is no surprise for Dolce & Gabbana, as they have explored various themes related to life in Italy (Sicily, specifically, which is Dolce’s birthplace) and have covered religion before. Their return to a divine inspiration is well-timed, though, as this year’s Met Gala will focus on fashion and religious imagery, specifically in Catholicism. Titled “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” the exhibition will take place at a “trinity” of locations this year, according to Vogue: the Anna Wintour Costume Center, the medieval galleries at the Met’s Fifth Avenue location and, finally, at the Cloisters in Uptown Manhattan.
Dolce & Gabbana has no involvement in the exhibition — another Italian, Donatella Versace, is one of the gala’s biggest sponsors.
Still, for anyone looking to get a jump-start on their Met Gala look, the Italian duo has enough fashion-friendly faux-religious garb to turn every actress into a high priestess.
