La dolce vita

Dolce & Gabbana’s opulent Alta Moda experience welcomes a glamorous international clientele into a bejewelled fashion fantasy, created by the designers on the fairy-tale shores of Lake Como

Dolce & Gabbana is reinventing luxury. Although its Alta Moda collection isn’t officially recognised as couture by the French fashion establishment thanks to the fact that it’s proudly made by hand in Milan, the concept – artistry, exclusivity and beauty – is exactly the same. But while the values of discretion and tradition still hold sway in Paris, the Italian duo have been working to create an unparalleled business over the past six years whose mantra can only be described as maximal. You want a tracksuit embellished with crystals then trimmed with neoncoloured feathers and fur? You want a crinolined floor-sweeping gown and a baroque gold crown? You want a rainbow-hued kaftan lined in marabou with a headdress of peacock feathers? While you’re at it, you want a selfie with the designers, wearing the six-figure outfit you bought from them last season? Stefano Gabbana described their most recent collection, presented in July at Lake Como, as ‘completely crazy, like a dream’ – but really, he could be talking about the whole damn thing.

This is an enormous compliment: Dolce & Gabbana has totally, fabulously shaken up the system with Alta Moda and its Alta Sartoria (menswear) and Alta Gioielleria (fine jewellery) collections, all of which are shown over an almost unimaginably opulent long weekend each season. Though a select handful of editors are invited, everything is choreographed for their astonishingly rich client base, whose appetite for glamour (and, usefully, shopping) seems insatiable – flying in on private jets from around the world to spend millions of euros during the four-day extravaganza, dressing up in head-to-toe, straight-from-the-catwalk, lavishly embellished, exquisitely flamboyant looks, and partying all night, every night, alongside the designers themselves. This is part of the genius of Alta Moda, of course: you buy these clothes to wear at the next Alta Moda. Each event on the schedule – lunches, cocktails, shows, dinners, dancing – is another wardrobe opportunity. And in case yours should prove lacking, or if the wait for the atelier to create your look is just too long, there’s always a Dolce & Gabbana pop-up store to hand.

It’s oddly democratic once you’ve made the guest list – there’s a WhatsApp group to place orders on a strictly first-come, firstserved basis, though special customers are reportedly allowed the opportunity to snap things up before they even reach the runway. There isn’t a front row: clients are left to select their own seats at each show, usually by chucking several thousand euros of gilded handbag onto it. What’s unexpected is not how international these 350 guests are – Asia, India, China, South America, Africa; the global sweep of new money – but how young, as well as how many come as couples or even families. You want a bejewelled crown for your baby to match the one you’re buying? Yes, you can have that too.

Attending Alta Moda is an eye-opening, jaw-dropping, but utterly seductive experience, even as an impoverished member of the press who is unlikely to ever need that WhatsApp contact. The location changes each season, moving mostly from one postcardperfect Italian setting to another: Venice, Capri, Palermo, Naples. This time, it was Como. The first night’s jewellery presentation was on the lake itself, while sailing to a late, impossibly photogenic, open-air dinner where tables were set up in a village square by the water’s edge, beneath thousands of Italian festival lights. Below deck, clients were buying elaborate ruby and gold earrings, emeraldencrusted bracelets and other expensive confections like it was a competitive sport. Above, others shot Instagram videos and tried to spot George Clooney’s house (‘It’s not the best,’ said one guest, sniffily). Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce wandered about, charming and accessible. This is also the genius of the Alta Moda experience: you feel part of a hugely extended, unusually welldressed Italian family.

The womenswear show – in many ways, the main event of the weekend – took place at dusk in the candlelit gardens of a beautiful villa, with the audience reclining on velvet chairs while an orchestra played and the sun slid slowly behind the mountains across the darkening waters. Any Alta Moda collection is always inspired by its location, and this was a romp (there is no other word) through the area’s history as a playground for the global rich. ‘Como has always been a melting pot,’ Dolce says. ‘Aristocrats from lots of different countries were here, and there was always lots of gossip. They lived a very free life. We wanted to reflect this.’ There were 120 models – from Ashley Graham and Naomi Campbell to Lady Kitty Spencer and Viscountess Emma Weymouth – each wearing something elaborate, fantastical and almost indescribable, with exceptional craftsmanship the only common factor. The photographs do more justice here than words ever could.

Afterwards, another boat trip back across Lake Como to another extraordinary open-air dinner in front of yet another picturesque villa. There were fireworks at midnight, a marching band, a disco that went on until dawn. The next night, menswear. The following night, the closing party. More boats, dinners, shopping, villas, champagne. Alta Moda is probably the most fun you can have with your clothes on. And oh, what clothes they are…