Day: 25/09/2021

The Underwear Collection

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At Dolce and Gabbana, they are really on-trend

Missed the Victoria’s Secret fashion show? Watch Dolce and Gabbana. Not enough bras from this season’s fashion week so far, including New York? Watch Dolce & Gabbana. Need to know what to wear the bra with? Yes, watch Dolce & Gabbana. We know by now that the visible bra is big, but D&G makes sure you know how visible and how big. Out of the staggering 103 looks that appeared on the runway, 74 showed bras, either on their own, peeking between the vertical opening of tops, or under diaphanous blouses/shirts (not counting those with just the bra straps showing). That’s more than half or—to be exact—71.8 percent (nearly three quarts) of the collection. Some looks are unmistakably bra-and-pant sets, some as the only top you need, others are the bases on which sheer and more sheer must do their job: titillate.

There is a bra for every look, every taste, every occasion: to go shopping in (with denim shirt and jeans), to attend class in college (under a ‘Jennifer Lopez’ T-shirt), to WFM (with a halter wrap-top), to go for a job interview (under a buttoned-up transparent floral shirt), to go on a date (with a panelled body-con dressed assembled by lacing), to impress a hookup (with a beaded gilet), to street walk (under a sheer corset dress or a fitted stretch-lace dress), to the disco when they eventually open (under a beaded tuxedo jacket and with fitted gold pants), to hang out with the BFFs (with a sheer leopard print dressed, slashed to the side and held together only at two points: the neck and hip), even to hang out with the boys (with camo fatigues). It is enough to think that D&G is starting a lingerie business.

The reference to the Victoria’s Secret show is not only because of D&G’s underwear on display (they include panties, bodysuits and other onesies), but also wing-like extensions in the form of butterfly-shaped sleeves—all five of them. Sure, these are nowhere near the scale of Victoria’s Secret’s angel wings (the heaviest apparently weighed around 27 kilograms), but the fantasy element is there and not lost. These are wearable wings; they won’t be turned away at a Michelin-starred restaurant, or Shake Shack. But it is not so clear if the predominantly bra-and-panty looks will be welcomed with opened arms, even in Met Gala’s home, New York City, let alone this conservative (we’re constantly reminded) island, also known as the Little Red Dot.

The D&G collection is reportedly based on the year 2000 (presumably the spring/summer season too), when the brand was considered to be at its peak, way before the 2018 fall out with Chinese consumers. Yes, a decade ago, they too were showing bras, teeny ones. But the undergarment did not have a starring role as they do now. They were all worn under something—many shirts, many sheer. The oversized diamanté buckles on skirts and pants were more the focal points. And the collection was a paltry 83 looks, 20 less than the present. Back then, the transparent tops over bejeweled bras, teamed with embroidered micro-mini-skirts might have been novel, but move that forward, add more tiny skirts, skinny pants, and military-style fatigues, and we are stomping new grounds? Or, are we really seeing the post-pandemic fashion so many women are waiting for?

Photos: Dolce & Gabbana

Under Undulating Silks

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Returning to the live presentation format, Versace shows what stagecraft (or runway craft?) could be, with Dua Lipa upstaging even Naomi Campbell

Lipa Dua closing the Versace spring/summer 2022 show

Donatella Versace really knows how to stage a show. In Versace’s comeback IRL presentation, things don’t just happen on the runway. At the start, a group of masked men, shirtless to reveal extreme musculature, struts down the catwalk and then disappears into the audience. The camera zooms in on the men standing in the rear. With their hands gripping on a thick black rope, they begin to yank it downwards. At first you might think they are operating manual fans. Then you realise what they are doing. On the ceiling, two row of colourfully-printed squares of silk foulard—like giant Versace scarves—swell and billow, and ripple. Are they improving the ventilation or air quality of the indoor venue? Or, are they, as one SOTD reader texted us this morning, “efficiently moving COVID over everyone”? Maybe for now, let’s pretend that the show is set under a tent and it is very windy outside.

And it is surging under the canopy too—with excitement. The show opens with Dua Lipa walking—not performing—to her disco-dynamite Physical. Reportedly, the livestream was so massively watched around the world that it crashed at some point (it affected us not)! We didn’t know who would be appearing, but many, it seemed, did and had tuned in to catch Emily Ratajkowski and Lourdes Leon (yes, Madonna’s daughter is a model!) as well, and to a small extent, Naomi Campbell (if you are, er, above 45). Ms Versace certainly knows who she is targeting and ensnaring. Sure, she has worked with pop stars before, but they may have not appealed to the right demographics (remember Jennifer Lopez? Before the return of Bennifer?). This time, it is clear that Versace also needs to tether less to the “supers” who have made the brand famous, save the present-everywhere, host of her own show/YouTube channel, Baby Woman, Ms Campbell.

Elsewhere in Milan, designers are doing sexy. Donatella Versace does not have to do sexy—it comes to her naturally. And sexy has never left the house. Body-con dresses may not presently be a thing, but if they are, the house of Versace can be counted on to do them fittingly, fittedly, and flatteringly. Few designers can shape, say, a bustier as perfectly as Ms Versace. Ditto for the one-slit, figure-hugging, ankle-length dress. In chain-mail, too. Especially for a full-figured Lourdes Leon (in silver, above). High-octane sexy is undeniably the result, but they never need to elicit the response, trashy. In that respect, the designer does not quite get the credit that she deserves. To have the sexiness stay alive, even when fashion was nearly consumed by loungewear (and athleisure before that), is no easy task. Ms Versace has kept sexy burning, just as the vestal virgins had kept the perpetual fire unextinguished.

This collection also explores, as is the case in recent seasons, the Versace DNA, including those little things that have been associated with the house, but may have been forgotten, such as the once ubiquitous safety pin. Back in 1994, when Liz Hurley wore that dress—the slit up the right rump and the V-shaped opening on the right side of the bodice were held together with gold safety pins—it was considered scandalous. These days, many women work it with a lot less fabrics and even less opacity, as sexy is even more in your face. But rather than test the safety pin’s versatility and, consequently, a fabric’s tensile strength, Ms Versace has opted to use the pins in decorative ways, just as she does with buttons and the house silk foulards as ruffles or edging to peek from hems. Judicious use is, of course, not a house trait, just as timid colours are not too, but somehow, by marrying visual excess to pop culture’s predilection for the wildly eye-catching, Versace is able to convince the next gen of stars and their followers that that much may not be so. It is a win when it is Dua Lipa, rather than Naomi Campbell, who closes the show, and takes the post-finale bow with Donatella Versace. They, as Ms Lipa sang in the soundtrack, “created something phenomenal”.

Photos: Versace