Madonna makes veiled entrance at Dolce&Gabbana for show celebrating her 1990s heyday
MILAN — Celebrities took over Milan Fashion Week on the final big day of shows on Saturday, sending crowds of adoring fans from venue to venue.
Madonna sat in the front row at Dolce & Gabbana, joined by Naomi Campbell and Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin. Her bandmate, Maneskin frontman Damiano David, headed to Diesel, one of the season’s hottest stores, across town. Jacob Elordi sat on a bunny-shaped beanbag to watch Bottega Veneta’s show.
Highlights of Milan Fashion Week, mainly dedicated to women’s ready-to-wear collections for next spring and summer, on Saturday.
Madonna attempted a semi-stealthy entrance to Dolce & Gabbana’s show was draped in a black veil for a show that referenced her 1990s heyday and celebrated the cone bra.
Models in bleached blonde wigs strutted in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s signature corsets and fitted jackets, each sporting the aggressively feminine cone bra, in a collection that, according to the notes, “pays homage to an ironic and powerful female figure.”
Madonna was not specifically named, but the Milanese designers and the pop star have been in sync since they designed the costumes for her 1993 Girlie Show tour. The tour promoted Madonna’s album “Erotica,” which was released alongside her taboo-busting book “Sex.”
“Madonna has always been our icon. It is thanks to her that many things in our lives have changed,” the creators said in a note.
The collection, dubbed “Italian Beauty,” perfectly captured this moment in time. Cone bras peeked out from short jackets with pencil skirts, suspenders swung over corsets, and coats sculpted the body. Floral prints made a comeback, accenting a black, nude, red, and white color palette. Oversized crisscross earrings completed the looks. Heels were decidedly high.
After greeting the two designers, they walked down the runway to greet their guest of honor. Madonna, still covered by her long Chantilly lace veil held by a gold and crystal crown, stood up to embrace them both.
Sometimes distorted, sometimes crumpled, but always provocative, Bottega Veneta’s collection explores the intersection between the real world and fantasy, adulthood and childhood. Creative director Matthieu Blazy wanted it to be simple: to delight.
“We need beauty. We need joy,” Blazy said backstage. “We need this experimental act. It’s also an act of freedom.”
In this universe, a dental clinic receptionist wears a skirt with pants on one leg, which Blazy claims is a playful act. In a familiar scene, a well-dressed father carries his daughter’s pink and purple school bag. “Do we like the bag? I don’t know. Does it tell a story? Yes,” Blazy said.
Every detail is deliberate, from the flat collar of a bunny-ear dress to the large, colorful raffia wigs, even if their ultimate purpose is just to have fun. The wrinkled clothes mean the child is trying to dress up, only to be ruined by the end of the day.
Blazy’s characters carried what appeared to be ordinary plastic bags, but were actually made from nylon and leather, part of the brand’s ongoing technological innovations. The faux plastic bags symbolized everyday life and were accompanied by the brand’s signature woven bags, one for a violin, the other for a bottle of wine.
Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis celebrated the freedom of movement inherent in ballet in his new collection, inspired by archival photos of the brand’s founder, Salvatore Ferragamo, trying on shoes for African-American ballet dancer Katherine Dunham.
Dunham has often trained and worked in the Caribbean, which allowed the Jamaican-born British designer to “find a connection between the Italianness of Ferragamo and my heritage.”
The collection recalls the way of dressing of the 1980s, with strong shoulders and oversized cuts, also a tribute to the Russian ballet star Rudolf Nuryev, another historic client of Ferragamo.
To emphasize movement, Davis created long parachute dresses in silk nylon, suede and organza with an undulating bubble shape. The ballet dancer is honored in color-blocked cashmere wraps with layered leotards. More subversively, frayed denim shorts suggested a tutu.
Deisel’s models walked through a field of 14,800 kilograms (nearly 33,000 pounds) of denim scraps “to showcase the beauty of waste,” creating a dystopian backdrop for the brand’s latest elevated denim collection.
The Venetian brand led by creative director Glenn Martens has become a laboratory for textile experimentation. Short shorts are embroidered with a cascade of extra-long fringes, for a skirt effect. Jeans are laser-etched to give a worn look; the necklines of cotton sweatshirts appear worn, but the effect is actually a jacquard whose cotton has burned through to the tulle.
Marten’s says the brand’s “disruption” extends beyond its design. “We’re pushing for circular production,” he said. With that in mind, a coat was made from leftover spools of denim yarn, while oversized jeans were made from recycled cotton, some of which came from Diesel’s own production. And the offcuts piled on the floor were to be reused after the show.
