Rare Vintage: In a Palazzo in Milano: Dolce e Gabbana Alta Moda

In a palazzo in Milano, ladies in starched white lab coats with black lace collars, stitch silken flowers, hand-made in Vicenza by a woman whose company made the flowers used by Monsieur Dior in the 1950s, onto fluffs of blackened tulle.

In a palazzo in Milano the signora of the palazzo, a contessa or a principessa, wears a pink silk dressing gown piped in crimson.

"summer silks lit the hall with a burst of surprise, like a star rising amid the most delicate shades of light: pale pink, soft yellow, limpid blue..." Emile Zola, Au Bonheur des Dames

In a palazzo in Milano, on a meredienne-en-confident, lies a vast cloud of tulle strewn with flowers..."

"the wave of this cascade of linen slipped behind the quivering mystery of skirts, the chemise stiffened by the dressmaker's fingers, was about to become alive with flesh, warm and redolent with the smell of love, a white cloud sacrificed, bathed in the night, the slightest flutter of which to reveal the pink glimpse of a knee which in the depths of this whiteness would devastate the world." Emile Zola

In a palazzo in Milano, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have crafted a dream of Alta Moda for very few clients, not to be seen borrowed and worn on a red carpet, and bedecked with flowers and jeweled buttons.

In the early 1990s, my favorite designers were Dolce e Gabbana and I dreamt of owning one of their long sheer gowns in candy colors with the long coats piled with flowers. I still dream of owning one of those so if anyone out there has early 1990s Dolce e Gabbana they wish to part with, please let me know! And then after the 1990s I felt Dolce e Gabbana became a little repetitive, a little uninspired but they are back! I have loved the recent ready-to-wear and I absolutely love the alta moda. I also really love their philosophy that everything is one off and not really covered by the press (very few editors are invited). It is fact, very hard to even find photos of the alta moda collections.

For this collection 'i Fiori nell'Arte e le Donne' Domenico and Stefano looked to the garden, to the flowers found in museums and to women. It is ravishingly beautiful... dream a little haute couture dream...