Untamed Nature

Designer Daniel Del Core’s debut speaks to our collective desire right now for a little fantasy, writes Mark Holgate—but its inspiration came from the unlikeliest of sources.

Daniel Del Core learned about the reality of fashion—as opposed to the fantasy—early on. In May 2017, to be exact: The German-born, Italian-based designer, whose label, Del Core, debuted in Milan this past February, was working at Gucci, creating red-carpet looks as part of Alessandro Michele’s design team. And he had been dispatched to New York to fit Dakota Johnson’s Met-gala dress—black, betrained, and bedecked with ruffles. What he hadn’t planned on was having to drive with Johnson to the gala to make sure she looked A-OK after getting out of the car. “We arrived, and the photographers went wild,” Del Core recalls. “I was blown away. Then, when I turned around,” he says, starting to laugh, “the car had disappeared, and I was standing there like an idiot. [But] as I was walking back to the hotel I thought, Well—in the end, my job is for her. [Being there] made a difference. Dakota looked amazing.”

Fashion has had plenty of reality checks lately, some of them very much needed. Yet increasingly there’s a desire for it to return to finding joy and inspiring dreams in our transformed world, something that a new generation of designers—not only Del Core but the likes of Maximilian Davis and Charles de Vilmorin as well—has seized

MAXIMUM IMPACT

Behind the scenes of Del Core’s spring 2021 show, staged at the Cittadella degli Archivi on the outskirts of Milan. Photographed by Nicolò Bagnati. Fashion Editor: Carlos Nazario.