Explore the Immersive Installation of Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda Collections at Palazzo Reale in Milan

Those visitors expecting corsets and some deeply frilled and décolleté camp, should think again. Outfit after exquisitely handmade outfit reveals that Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda collections (Italian for “haute couture”) are an intense love letter to Italy and its exceptional arts and its crafts.

Among these decorative techniques on view are examples of Murano glass-making, the Majolica of the south, and Byzantine mosaics. Some are used literally—like tiny Murano flowers and baubles; others, like ceramic patterns and mosaic designs, are recreated in sequins and  prints. Three-dimensional Baroque plaster work is rendered in soft ecru fabrics. Dresses are made of feathers or tiny fabric petals, raffia crochet, or covered in embroidery so substantial as to be bas relief.

The jumping off points are opera, architecture, and film; the sacred and the profane; and gods, both ancient and new. Then there are locations—from Venice to Taormina. “Italy has been built over centuries,” says Mueller, “and this is what makes it so rich.”

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, respectively from Sicily and Milan, started their fashion business here in 1985, and quickly earned a reputation for sexy Italian styling combined with devilishly good cutting. “They are great at shaping the body, especially the feminine body,” says Mueller. The designers set up their Alta Moda arm in 2012, both as a laboratory for techniques and to create garments with no limits.

Showstoppers are too many to mention, but include an entire opera series from 2016, called the Milano Teatro collection, which are embroidered with libretti from Madama Butterfly, Tosca, and more, then embellished with sequins and crystals. These pieces are shown in a room converted into Milan’s famous Teatro della Scala, all red plush and antique mirror. A golden gown from the 2013 Milano collection is presented with a golden crown to represent The Madonnina, a golden statue of the Virgin Mary that, since 1774, has sat on the highest pinnacle of the city’s cathedral.

At the heart of the exhibition is a recreation of the house’s workroom, where their own specialists painstakingly work on tiny details and complex pattern cutting for the duration of the show. It serves to highlight the fatto a mano (or hand-made) quality of each piece.

Dolce and Gabbana consider the exhibition as a gift to the city which has given them so much. On the opening night, a tearful Domenico Dolce recounted how when he first arrived in the city as a fashion student, he prayed to the Madonnina to keep him here. “She listened to my prayer,” he concluded.

It has not yet been determined if the the exhibition will travel or not, so those traveling through, or even near, Italy before the end of July, “From the Heart to the Hands” is worth the detour to Milan. This is one of the year’s most thrilling and lavish exhibitions. It is not to be missed.

“From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana” is at Palazzo Reale, Milan until July 31.