MILAN — With their latest high jewelry, or Alta Gioielleria, collection, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana paid tribute not only to their beloved Sicily but continued to celebrate Italy’s goldsmithing tradition, reviving techniques that go back centuries and are practiced by only a few artisans today.
Cue the majolica miniatures depicting Sicilian landmarks that take months to be completed, the enamel requiring careful and multiple rounds of cooking. A marvel was the miniature charm depicting the Isola Bella on the Ionian Sea near Taormina, the Sicilian resort town where the brand last week unveiled the collection, together with its Alta Moda women’s and men’s couture offer.
The three-day event last week for around 300 clients is “unique in the market because it offers a holistic and consistent vision as part of a single experience and aesthetics across the board and strongly connected to the identity of the brand,” said Stefano Cantino, who was named co-chief executive officer last April, flanking Alfonso Dolce. “The collections are interconnected with one another as part of a single universe.”
At other luxury brands, high jewelry collections are often and generally given a separate spotlight, and several opt for showing during Paris Couture Week or stage dedicated itinerant fashion shows, such as Louis Vuitton and Dior, among others, who this year presented in Marrakech and Venice, respectively.
Not so at Dolce & Gabbana, at least so far, also in light of the single artistic direction of the two founding designers and their creative control. “Every jewel stems from their sketch and original idea and the storytelling is a key element of every collection, and very much connected to the territory,” said Cantino. “Clients respond well to the narrative, they are curious and engaged.”
While “strongly linked to the aesthetics of the clothes,” Cantino said the jewels were not paraded by models on the catwalk but rather shown in glass display cases.
A necklace from Dolce & Gabbana’s high jewelry collection. [Photographer Thomas Legrand]
The jewels are one-of-a-kind but Cantino said the brand’s artisans, working in-house at its Legnano headquarters, less than 20 miles from Milan, also respond to specific made-to-order requests.
He said the brand’s high jewelry performs strongly among North and Latin American clients, as well as in Asia, with Chinese and Taiwanese clusters, and, more recently, Indian clients. Often customers are collectors, but they also buy across the three categories during the Alta Moda experience. In fact, the brand presents high watches and jewels for men, too, offering “growth opportunities across the board,” Cantino enthused.
The devotion heart is one of the leitmotifs of the collections, also present in the fashion designs, as is other religious iconography, from the Virgin Mary to Christian crosses. One example was the “sacred heart” pendant necklace in white and pink gold with pink and rubellite tourmalines, rubies and diamonds.
A necklace from Dolce & Gabbana’s high jewelry collection. [Photographer Thomas Legrand]
In a brooch, a delightful tiny winged cherub floated over a spiral shell in yellow and white gold brimming with tanzanites; peridots; chrome, multicolor and pink tourmalines; yellow beryls; aquamarines; amethysts and diamonds.
Yellow and white gold shells formed a necklace with aquamarines, rubellite tourmalines, tanzanites, amethysts, yellow beryls, morganites, diamonds and Akoya pearls, the shells so carefully and intentionally detailed that some appeared to be eroded or polished by the sea.
A necklace in yellow, white and pink gold and titanium with blue zircons, rubellite and green tourmalines, kunzite, aquamarine, yellow and orange sapphires, tsavorite garnets and diamonds was highly representative of the brand and the island, embellished with lemons and other local fruits and flowers, shells, flowers and a winged cherub.
A necklace from Dolce & Gabbana’s high jewelry collection. [Photographer Thomas Legrand]
“Color is definitely another leitmotif of the collections,” said Cantino.
Nature was also reflected in an incredibly detailed brooch in yellow, white and pink gold with blue sapphires, green and strong pink tourmalines, tsavorite garnets and diamonds depicting a delicate butterfly leaning on a flower stem.
The first showing of Dolce & Gabbana’s high jewelry took place in Portofino in July 2015.
