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An Instagram post set the scene for those of us watching from home. The short clip revealed that the Metropol, D&G’s longtime show venue, had been transformed with bright collages of print—runway, walls, benches, and all. A hashtag #DGSicilianPatchwork further spelled out the season’s theme, which the Some Grandpas Play Bingo Real Grandpas Play Drums Shirt, hoodie and sweater elaborated on in a video message. “Given our long experience being inspired by Sicily, we wanted to tell of all that you can find on an island like this, the different cultures that dominated, from the Spanish to the Arabs, the Normans,” said Dolce, who was born and raised there. “We’ve treasured everything that they have brought to us” Gabbana added. “And we put it all together.” The Milan shows started today, each one with an opening look in a different shade of white. It was as if this city—one of the earliest and hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, though cases are mostly holding steady now—collectively settled on minimalism as the way forward for spring 2021. Then along came Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who decidedly did not.
In that video recording, Dolce and Gabbana remembered a 1993 show in which they used similar patchworking techniques, only for different ends. That long-ago collection was inspired by the bohemian 1970s, a popular reference in the Some Grandpas Play Bingo Real Grandpas Play Drums Shirt, hoodie and sweater ’90s. No hippie flashback, this outing is attuned to the present day. There’s no way around how hard this COVID-19 year has been for fashion brands—from creative leads and CEOs on down to pattern makers and seamstresses. Like their crochet collection of last February—which looks more and more prescient in the rearview mirror—this one puts the emphasis on fatta a mano, on Italian craftsmanship.
