Last night’s Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda show was held at the Radicepura horticultural park, in the hills just outside Taormina. The property includes a house where Francis Ford Coppola filmed Vito Corleone avenging his mother’s death in The Godfather Part II, but Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were more interested in an older story about Sicily—one of gods and mortals. It began with a voiceover: “In this story, the goddesses represent the dream. The devotees embody life. The goddesses descend from Olympus. The devotees await them on earth. And it is precisely in the encounter between these two dimensions that the magic of Alta Moda is born.”

Landscape, history, and mythology are all key to the Alta Moda story. Since the first show in 2012—which also happened to be in Taormina—when Dolce and Gabbana first offered this alternative to Paris haute couture, they’ve taken their clients on a grand tour of Italy. Place, family, and a very lavish way of doing things have become essential and authentic parts of their storytelling. “For the first three seasons, we didn’t sell a single dress,” Dolce said at a dinner afterward. “People thought it was a party. But Alta Moda for me isn’t marketing. It’s life. It’s love.”

In one especially bold look, dozens of glittering pistils spilled from a petal-shaped bodice.
Photo: Marco Pionato / Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

A ballgown in airy tulle with proportions like Charles James.
Photo: Marco Pionato / Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

In the 2012 show, flowers were a recurring theme. Tulle gowns with hand-painted blossoms from that collection were on display at the haute jewelry presentation at the San Domenico Palace (home of The White Lotus, season two), which kicked off three nights of festivities for the 300-plus global VIPs in attendance—four if you count the afterparty with a special performer whose name wasn’t yet announced. Flowers were the big story here too. Radicepura already has hundreds of native and non-native plants; the designers added tens of thousands more: roses, hydrangeas, petunias, and so on. The result was a kind of dreamlike garden, like Eden on a strong dose of acid. The senses blended: you could almost taste the colors.

As guests found their seats, the models posed—some rising from the flower beds, others lounging on antique sofas, and at least one sitting on a flower throne. One by one, when their names were called in the voiceover—Camilla, Claudia, Anna, Avishag—they began their winding walk through the blooms. It took nearly an hour, many times longer than a typical runway show, and there were 100 looks in total—dresses for every kind of goddess and every kind of devotee. Sicilian widows in black lace, a house signature. Marchesa Casati types in silk dresses and velvet cloaks in gelato pastels. Debutantes in ballgowns with frothy Charles James proportions and hand-painting that recalled the 2012 collection. A goddess in pleated silk the exact aqua color of the Mediterranean Sea. Flowers came in many forms: three-dimensional rosettes, intarsia into fur, embroideries on lace. In one especially bold look, dozens of glittering pistils spilled from a petal-shaped bodice.

The work involved was incredible, especially since the designers will pull off an Alta Sartoria equivalent tonight at Taormina’s ancient Greco-Roman amphitheater, and are already planning a September ready-to-wear show. When an amazed guest asked Gabbana how he kept going, he was as clear as Dolce: “It’s my passion,” he said.

Alta Moda’s devotees—including Jennifer Lopez, Christian Bale, and Monica Bellucci (whose 16-year-old daughter Léonie Cassel opened the show in her modeling debut), along with many others with less fame but still eye-popping bank accounts—ate and danced late into the night. Transported, if not to Olympus, then certainly to somewhere quite magical, for as long as the moment lasted.Posing among the palm trees of Redicepura.
Photo: Marco Pionato / Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

The hand-painted details on the ball gowns echoed Dolce & Gabbana’s first Alta Moda collection from 2012.
Photo: Marco Pionato / Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

Sicilian widows have been a recurring theme in Dolce & Gabbana’s work over the years.
Photo: Marco Pionato / Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

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Léonie Cassel leads the finale.
Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

As fragile as a flower vase.
Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

Blending into the greenery, dressed in lace-trimmed silk.
Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

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