Positive
and clean shapes, advanced solutions and high technological content:
these are the characteristic traits of the 2001 sunwear and frames
collection by Dolce & Gabbana Eyewear.
The result of the creative work of
the two fashion designers working jointly with the Marcolin Group,
these collections are in a class of their own for the constant
attention to details and the research into innovative materials.
This results in eyewear that, from being a mere complement to style,
becomes the hallmark of an uncompromising and elegant character,
full of appeal while remaining discrete.
The sunwear collection 2001 has
extremely distinctive elements: the large and imposing shapes are
accompanied by "jewelled" sides whose rich working still
maintains their slenderness. The colours reflect the latest fashion
trends: black, roviex and smoke to go with lenses in shaded and
progressive colours.
The Dolce & Gabbana frames
collection 2001 proposes models in the lightest metal with clean and
linear shapes.
The precious and harmonious frame characterises the glacé models
where the three 'components' (sides, lens and bridge) are held
together by a system adopting the very latest technological research.
Also with a strong impact is the collection in acetate whose
slightly squared shapes are underlined by shaded, pin-stripe or
transparent colours.
The
prominent Sicilian photographer, Ferdinando Scianna, noted for his
photo-journalism is now making a name in fashion photography working
with Italy's most Mediterranean designers: Domenico Dolce and
Stefano Gabbana. A perfect brotherhood: the atmosphere
of a Palermo dungeon and fashions inspired by neo-realism
have left their mark on the last ten years, sounding a contralto to
the tones of a more conservative and traditional aesthetic. It's
interesting to observe how Dolce&Gabbana
have highlighted the details of everyday Sicilian life, in
its reality and iconic representation. For example, rosary beads
have become incorporated into the D&G trend as necklaces. They
have managed to exhalt and reinterpret a culture which has had
nothing to do with fashion in the past.
They
have upset the sense of things, so to speak, bringing undergarments
out from under. The bra has become a formidable and highly-visible
garment. Their straw
hand-bags recall traditional Sicilian carts. They remain true
to their source of inspiration, and their brown pinstripe suits have
altered international tastes by making high-style from something
long relegated to the fashion periphery. There is a fierce pride in
being Italian exhibited in their works, reflected also in their
Sicilian ceramic home-decor accessories. By totally understanding
the concept of machismo so central to Sicilian culture and rhetoric,
they have stripped bare the mainstays of this culture and redraped
them in new versions, receiving great international approval.
It's fascinating to watch the globalization of Sicilian culture as
it transported and diffused by MTV videos featuring the many musical
artists who wear D&G fashions.
However, is
anybody surprised if in D&G's next step, everything blends
together again? The TV-ad for their perfume, directed by Oscar-winner Tornatore, is
once again all about cactus, glaring lights, fleshy and impassioned
women, furtive glances and impure thoughts all interacting with a
strange alchemy, insular yet universal and leaving a trace through
Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, The Leopard, Roberto Rossellini and
De Sica, Visconti, Anna Magnani...A complex yet single-note fashion,
superficial by definition -how could fashion be otherwise- but
subtly dramatic, and evocative of dense atmospheres