The outdoor spaces of Milan’s Palazzo Reale, as if they wanted to prepare the viewer for the journey of endless suggestions that awaits him or her a few steps away, give the first taste of Dal Cuore alle Mani: Dolce&Gabbana, an exhibition, of course, but first and foremost a declaration of love by the designer duo to Italian culture, which has always been their privileged source of inspiration.
Digital artworks, created by renowned visual artists of the contemporary scene such as Felice Limosani, Obvious Art, Alberto Maria Colombo, Quayola, Vittorio Bonapace and Catelloo dot the entrance, serving as a prelude to the crossroads of rooms that, from April 7 to July 31, 2024 become the custodians of the history, or, better yet, the very essence of the fashion house, which has chosen Milan itself-where they were artistically born-to tell their 40 years of creativity. Each of them – like tableaux vivants meticulously designed to offer the public a work of art in art itself – becomes the foundational piece of a puzzle of a thousand shades and suggestions. A mosaic of colors, shapes and creations ready to tell the whole story of the Dolce&Gabbana world and style: from visual arts to architecture, from opera music to Italian traditions, from theater to Dolce Vita.
As the title of the exhibition suggests, it is the heart, and therefore the idea, the ingenuity, that drives shaping, but it is only through the hands that everything takes shape. Well: the beginning of the journey into the meanderings of Fatto a Mano, a value cherished by the designer duo, as well as a timely encounter between craft tradition and contemporaneity, takes place on the main floor of the Palazzo. Here, room after room, ten in all, its very meaning is dissected, unraveling in the most diverse forms and inspirations.
From the room dedicated to Venetian glassmaking, with fittings of high craftsmanship that recall the embroidery and crystals of the dresses featured, we move on to the rooms that recreate scenes from the film transposition of Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, and then allow ourselves to be enveloped in a true Baroque explosion. Under the auspices of Sacred Heart, this space presents a contemporary sanctum sanctorum, a treasure chest that holds a selection of Haute Couture and High Jewelry creations that alternate the allure of black Sicily with the opulence of gold. But it is Tailoring, the fifth room of the itinerary, that is the beating heart of the exhibition journey. A living workshop, it will see tailors and artisans actually working there every Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., offering the public a realistic glimpse behind the scenes of Dolce&Gabbana’s Haute Couture, Haute Tailoring and Haute Jewelry creations.
The itinerary then winds its way through the arts of painting and architecture, eventually arriving at the seventh room, the one dedicated to the richness of the Sicilian craft tradition, a true reminder of its origins, which is revived thanks to a special installation hand-decorated by master painters of majolica and the Sicilian Carretto. The journey continues through rooms dedicated to white Baroque, where it is possible to admire dresses from the Stucchi Haute Couture Collection that blend with the surrounding space in a great visual symphony, and then, again, into the dimension of myth. In the same way that a show reaches its concluding act, similarly the exhibition concludes inside a theater.
The exhibition, which chooses Milan as the first stop on an international itinerary, is promoted by the City of Milan – Culture and produced by Palazzo Reale and IMG, and curated by Florence Müller, internationally renowned lecturer and author, former director of the Union Française des Arts du Costume at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and curator Fashion and Textile Art at the Denver Art Museum.