The exhibition “Dolce&Gabbana. From the heart to the hands“, curated by Florence Müller, after Milan and Paris, has landed in Rome, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The exhibition, a tribute to the Maison, stems from the designers’ desire to share their love for the artistic soul of their country and for ‘ancestral crafts handed down through the generations’ and is promoted by Roma Capitale and the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo.
“DOLCE&GABBANA. Dal cuore alle mani”, installation view at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, da sin a dx. “Fatto a Mano” e “Il Gattopardo”, ph. credits DSL STUDIO, courtesy Palazzo delle Esposizioni
The first room presents a layout reminiscent of a central, octagonal textile architecture, within a masonry architecture poised between past and present, with references to several cities and archaeological realities. Imagine the mannequin representing Rome, at the top of the structure, as the Goddess Rome, with her limbs covered by the haute couture garment that pays homage to the timeless grace of the Capitoline monuments, starting with the Amphitheatrum Flavium that dictates the shape of her features, and ending with a volume that pretends to be the bell, of which the carillon is sometimes composed. The Goddess seems to rotate, simulating the movement of the sound box itself. The sparkling corset, with its hundreds of crystals, sculpts intense and nostalgic emotions, reconnecting us to Rome’s glorious past and giving us a passionate and visionary state towards the future. Consequently, the exhibition layout, created to accommodate the clothes-works in the first room, condenses the potential of the double vertical-horizontal directionality of the uninterrupted space with the outside, as Piacentini wished, and thus, from the street towards the inside and from the inside towards the street, in a melody of elegant osmosis.
“DOLCE&GABBANA. Dal cuore alle mani”, installation view at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, “Il Barocco Bianco”, ph. credits DSL STUDIO, courtesy Palazzo delle Esposizioni
The Roman setting is strong in its exhibition character, tending to give as much weight to the host structure, the Eternal City, as to the narrative value of the Maison’s research. On the steps descending from theologeion of the skené, the skilful mastery of the brand’s many collaborations, forged during its Grand Tour of the peninsula, from Milan to Rome, from Florence to Naples, unfolds in the places of the masterpieces that have marked and continue to the history and future of our civilisation, those same places that have been the altars of fashion shows: Taormina, Milan, Venice, Capri, Portofino, Naples, Palermo, Como, Agrigento, Florence, Syracuse, Puglia. And each time, the clothes are a formal reflection of the architecture – a symbol of the town, such as Alta Moda, Collezione Alberobello, A/1 2023-2024, with a tulle illusion cape entirely embroidered with satin and lurex brocade inlays and embellished with chiffon, lurex and crystal flowers, where above the Trulli and cactus plants, a dreamy crescent moon hovers in the architecture itself, a conical dry stone construction, in the middle of a new moon. The basketry characteristic of Regions, where reeds collected in marshes were woven together is transformed into masterpieces of weaving made with satin cords padded with cotton wool.
“DOLCE&GABBANA. Dal cuore alle mani”, installation view at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, “Arte Sarda”, ph. credits DSL STUDIO, courtesy Palazzo delle Esposizioni
There is also a reference to one of the ‘three crowns’ of Italian literature, Dante Alighieri, celebrated through the reproduction of Giuseppe Bertini’s Dantesque window embroidered with silk threads, cotton and metal, crystals, sequins, glass beads and silk crepe, with peaked lapels, belt with hand-knotted fringes in silk velvet, finished with matching half stitching, on the four-plus-two button guilloché gold-plated and lapis lazuli dressing gown coat for Haute Couture garments, Milan Collection, S/S 2020. In her dancing movement, the goddess observes, from above, the dense collection of paintings of the dancer, top model, ambassador for major brands and Franco-American artist, with Spanish and Vietnamese origins, Anh Duong, whose paintings, created between 2012 and 2024, and exhibited for the first time at Palazzo Reale, have been placed in dialogue with a selection of Haute Couture and Haute Couture garments. The works are self-portraits of Duong, capturing her different shades of identity while wearing emblematic Dolce&Gabbana garments. Jérôme Neutres (President of the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris) states that «Dolce&Gabbana’s curatorial choice to integrate Anh Duong’s paintings into their major exhibition at Palazzo Reale is therefore logical and rich in meaning».
“DOLCE&GABBANA. Dal cuore alle mani”, installation view at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, “La Devozione”, ph. credits DSL STUDIO, courtesy Palazzo delle Esposizioni
It is Venice and its glassmaking art, together with the sparkling corset adorned with hundreds of crystals, that move the goddess Roma’s soul towards the next rooms: Art and the mastery of glass; The Leopard; Sicilian traditions; White Baroque; Devotion; In the Heart of Milan; The Opera; Tailoring. Ornaments and volumes; Dressing architecture and painting; Divinities in Dreams; Sartorial anatomy, with male and female corsets and references, modernised to the 17th and 19th centuries, to the 1950s guêpière, the seductive world of Helmut Newton. Giuseppe Tornatore writes in his documentary on fashion designers: «It feels like being in a fairy tale, but we are only in the sanctuary of two artists who succeed in the difficult task of devoting all their energy to their work and nothing else, in a feeling of absolute and unconditional devotion». Incidentally, the perfume of the Haute Couture house bears the same name, Devotion. And, finally, the room Arte Sarda, which the Maison approached during last summer’s fashion shows on the island, bringing a reconstruction of the interior of a Bronze Age Nuragic megalithic architecture, to Palazzo delle Esposizioni, with a collection inspired by the processions of Sant’Efisio that pay homage to Sardinian weaving techniques such as pibiones, handmade grape cluster motifs on ancient looms and decorations inspired by fauna and flora that reawaken memories of the tradition of coccoi pintau, sculpted bread; also to the city of Nora, founded in the 8th century BC, among Roman mosaics and the ruins of an amphitheatre; and to the carnival of Ottana, a village a few kilometres from Nuoro, where the celebrations include a ceremony based on ancient pastoral rites featuring the Boes (oxen) and the Merdules (their masters).
“DOLCE&GABBANA. Dal cuore alle mani”, installation view at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, “Vestire l’Architettura e la Pittura”, ph. credits DSL STUDIO, courtesy Palazzo delle Esposizioni
We conclude our journey with the goddess Roma standing in front of the macramé lace dress on a basket structure with corset and gold filigree, and tulle veil embellished with haute couture lace inserts, of the Haute Couture, Milan Collection, P/E 2013, which echoes the domed architecture of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, as well as paying homage to the golden statue of the Madonnina, located at the top of the Duomo, which is the image on the poster and cover of the exhibition catalogue.
Laura Catini
Info:
Dolce&Gabbana, Dal cuore alle mani (From the heart to the hands)
14/5/2025 – 13/8/2025
Palazzo Esposizioni Roma
via Nazionale, 194 – Roma
www.palazzoesposizioniroma.it
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