Roy Bushmann (Firenze)
A return to the origins of high fashion.
A hymn to craftsmanship.
A new Renaissance that tastes like a rebirth, after months of lockdown.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were the protagonists of a two-day event from the 2nd to the 3rd of September in Florence Italy. On stage the haute couture and women’s couture collections «We wanted to pay tribute to Florentine craftsmanship», they explained to FashionHarp on Roy Bushmann’s microphone.
How did the idea of Florence come about?
We were supposed to hold an event in Florence in June as guests of Pitti Uomo. Then everything was moved to September for known reasons. In the meantime, we thought that instead of presenting a ready-to-wear collection, we would have preferred to have a high fashion show and a high tailoring one. Because Florence had already been on our wish list for two years as a place to present these collections.
Are you happy with all these initiatives?
We’re very excited, we’re looking forward to it. But then it’s a good thing for Italy. In our opinion, there will only be good things, in general, for the country.
It’s a beautiful vision, a beautiful message, a beautiful sentiment…
We are very positive. Some extraordinary things have come out for the collections you will see. We ourselves look forward to presenting them. We’re very excited. (all rights reserved)
“Florence is considered to be the capital of fashion. But this isn’t just a fashion event; it’s an event for the city,” explained Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence, at the press conference. He continued, “This is a visionary event. We have to be visionary and react in an extraordinary way. We can’t use the ordinary tools of the past.”
It is the first major live fashion event in the world after the upheaval of Covid19. And it is held in Florence. The title speaks for itself: The Renaissance and the Renaissance. A three-day event of happenings and fashion shows by Dolce&Gabbana, commissioned by the Municapality of Florence and Pitti Immagine, involving 38 Florentine artisans from the CRFirenze Foundation’s Osservatorio dei Mestieri d’Arte.
Wednesday 2, Thursday 3, and Friday 4 September. A roundabout, a historical event that brings to light, in one of the most difficult moments of our times, an Italy and a Florence that do not stop. Alfonso Dolce, CEO of the Dolce&Gabbana maison, who has made Made in Italy his mission and who has been promoting Italian handmade products as one of his main objectives for some time: “We didn’t just want to create a fashion show, but a real project of art and culture, which is linked in a special way to our spirit of enhancement of craftsmanship, which in turn has its fulcrum in the territory. From May to June Domenico Dolce was in Florence working in direct contact with the artisans and discovered a unique reality made up of territory and human capital that must be made known to the world. The 38 craftsmen with whom we worked were free to write their point of view, their art. Because ‘art plus culture equals history’ and we feel the responsibility to carry on this story. This is also a cultural event that speaks to young people. We invite them to consider the craft of the craftsman for the future. This is a message that we feel deeply and for a long time our own, as it is since 2012 that Dolce&Gabbana has set up artisan workshops in the company. Not Made in Italy, but Fatto in Italia, as our grandparents and parents did, and with the idea of passing this knowledge on to our children”.