On Friday 20th April, the second session at Vogue Festival started with the
incredible Italian duo Dolce & Gabbana.
British Vogue editor Alexandra
Shulman took the stage to interview Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana under
the themes of Italianita’, Amore e Famiglia.
This interview must have been one of the
most anticipated workshops by all those attending, especially for moi, since they are my
favourite designers - because of the immense passion they show towards their brand, their ideals, their Italy, the culture and identity behind their brand
and the truthfulness to their collections but most of all because of the the
woman that they portray.
As soon as their name was announced, and I saw them walking on stage, I could feel my
eyes water, I wish someone would have photographed my face or saw the feeling I
had in my eyes, it was incredible and surreal moment, a dream.
Alexandra Shulman described the
dynamic designer’s important relationship and their partnership, and on how they
strived to keep the business going for so many years. She defined their brand as
“glamour, sexiness, womanliness and Italian exuberance” and continued elaborating
on their continuous faithfulness to love, family and their Italian roots.
Alexandra Shulman started out by asking
them about how they met, how the brand and name came to be and how their
relationship started. One could see the immense respect and love they have
for each other from their answers. Laughing their way through they described
how their business started with only one table with three legs and one sofa,
and how slowly they started making clothes. The first collection by Domenico Dolce was called Donna,
Donna, DD, Dolce & Gabbana in 1981 and from then on its history.
Stefano Gabbana described their collaboration
as a ‘strange animal’ where Domenico’s job is tailoring with an fine obsession
on details and his job is more on the image and how he always give the final
touch to the collection. He light-heartedly
elaborated about how one does his job on his own without the other, but without
the other they cannot do their job because they ultimitely need each other. He said,
“I take care about something and he takes care about something and at the same
time he takes care of what I do” and suddenly giggles and laughter erupted from
the audience.
Jokingly he said that “… finally when the
fashion show is over, finally and I repeat finally it is the last time we hear
the song.”
With Pavarotti’s ‘Funicula, Funicala’ in
the background for the concept of ‘Famiglia’.
The concept of family for both of them is
that it is their reference point and it is from where they draw inspiration. Domenico
Dolce defined family as a universal word, something strong and something warm
where you feel the love. He said that Italians especially in the southern parts
of Italy, like Sicily where he is from, family is important and explained how
Italians celebrate Sundays. On Sunday lunch at 1pm all the family meets up, the
uncle, the auntie, the cousin, the girlfriends, the boyfriends, the children,
the neighbours … and describes it as
being picturesque and cinematographic.
From there they continued explaining, how
their work place is their family especially Barbara who is number one, that is
where family starts and it extends to 5000 workers worldwide. With a smile on
his face, Domenico Dolce said that “we make this job a family” and he pointed
out that if an employee works for them for 6 months, then from there its
forever.
Love – Life, Passion, Freedom … with
Pavarotti’s ‘O Sole Mio’.
Domcenico Dolce interprets love as energy, love
is power, it is the energy around the world, the sea the sky, love is honesty, love
is about living life in a nice way. Then a baby started crying and he said, “That
is love”.
The duo continued defining the word, according
to them; love is a very difficult word to define. They continued withe how
their relationship changed from being a couple in love, lovers and partners to
just being partners and how now they have a better understanding and tolerance
of each other. Stefano said that it does not mean that now that they are not
lovers anymore, there isn’t love, love will always be there and respect never
dies.
It was their countries
turn … Italianita’ started with Pavarotti’s rendition of ‘O Surdato Nnamurato’ I…
Monica Bellucci, architecture, churches, the blue sky and the sun, art, Roma, I
uomini, la seduzione dei uomini, Il colosseo …
Alexandra Shulman
asked the designers about how they see the future of Italian designers and
fashion in Italy since they are practically the youngest, well-established designers
in the country. Stefano Gabbana answered by saying “We are not old, we are not
young we are in the middle” and he went on to explain about their concept multi
brand store – Spiga.
Spiga is the promotion
of around 23 international fashion designers in one store, where Dolce &
Gabbana help in their promotion and recognition among the industry.
From Spiga 2 - Christina Crawford designs
When the floor opened to questions from the
audience, someone immediately asked them how they managed to succeed. Domenico Dolce gave one advice, and that is to
pursue your dream, to concentrate on one thing, something you love, something
that comes from the heart. Stefano continued elaborating when he said not to
look at something grand, at something big and he gave the example of Fausto
Puglisi when the designer had asked the duo on how to become big and how he will
get the most famous models to wear his designs. They
told him “people want you and not the models, they want your designs then the
rest will come later”. The best advice they could give anyone.
Unfortunately, the workshop was over before
I knew it. The advice they gave everyone was to "believe in your work, focus on one thing, you need to be brave, be strong, and never stop because every day is very complicated but if you believe the day after will be much better" What came out of it for me was more determination to continue pursue my dreams and to follow one’s heart.
I am very sure everyone took something out of it and that is to just go for it.
Thank you Mr. Gabbana and Mr. Dolce, you
are one of the reasons I am pursuing fashion.
xoxo
Laura
The full interview is available on the British Vogue website:
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