Viva La Famiglia: childhood the Dolce & Gabbana way
The audience at a fashion show is usually a glacial sea of inscrutable faces, sunglasses firmly on for maximum impenetrability. But cast an eye along the front row at one of Dolce & Gabbana’s extravaganzas, and some of those assembled will buck the trend. Beside a stylish matron, a little figure in rose-print tulle swings her legs merrily in time with the high-voltage music, feet not yet reaching the floor.
A few seats down, another girl toys with her princess tiara, uninterested in the sequinned bomber jackets and pop stars parading past, while her little brother – suited and booted–fiddles with his father’s lapel pin. This isn’t some high-fashion crèche, but a typical example o f the label’s love of la famiglia –a love that informs its beautiful, playful range of childrenswear.
"Dolce & Gabbana has always been about family," says Stefano Gabbana, who, along with Domenico Dolce, spends Christmas with an extended family that includes a veritable army of nieces and nephews.
"It’s at the heart of everything we do . When we closed our D&G line we realised we had no childrenswear any more," he says of the decision, taken in 2011, to shutter their second range. But the brand’s glamorous grown-up patrons wanted a slice of Italianate exuberance for their little ones.
And so, in 2012, the pair reintroduced a children’s line, taking their cue from the mothers among their glamorous circle, who reminded them that beyond the pretty bows and petal-fine tulle,the clothes had to be practical.
"We decided to change the format," says Gabbana. "We loved the idea of making everything in miniature, exactly the same as for the woman and the man. We had a picture in our minds of a family, the mother, father, son and daughter, all in versions of the same clothes. So sweet!"
It certainly is; the siren mamma who opts for the Majolica-print pencil dress with a 1950s silhouette can have it replicated in tot form – a billowing frock with patterned bloomers. And the papa, in his embellished crown-emblem shirt, can dress up his princeling in an equally regal sweatshirt.
It’s particularly fitting, given that Dolce & Gabbana has, in its very Italian way, always been focused on family: Mrs Gabbana, regal and immaculately coiffed, is always front row, and has been known to star in quite a few of her son’s Instagram videos.
While other designers might introduce children’s clothing as a lucrative money spinner, theirs has always been an intergenerational approach; advertising campaigns depict the joys of hearth and home in scenes straight from The Godfather-meets Roman Holiday: Catholic nonnas serve up groaning bowls of pasta puttanesca as a whole clan look on, bambini weaving under tables or sneaking chunks of focaccia.
It has filtered through to their catwalks, too: one previous show, entitled Viva la Mamma, featured model mothers, or mothers-to-be, bouncing babies on their hips, and childlike doodles across the clothes.
It was their own childhoods–Dolce’s in sun-drenched Sicily and Gabbana’s in more industrial Milan–that helped form their expertise and work ethic. "I grew up around the tailoring world," says Dolce, whose father worked as a tailor and who claims to have crafted his first pair of trousers aged six. For Gabbana,who helped his mother clean homes as a child, it was the youthquake of the denim brand Fiorucci in Milan in the 1960s that ignited his love of fashion.
"I made a collection of Fiorucci shopping bags and my mother has them, and all the stickers," he has said previously. "My mother is totally crazy for fashion still. She worked as a laundress, but I loved when she would dress up in her red suit with mini jacket and flared trousers and we would go shopping. Now it’s my turn to take care of my family; I need to say thank you to them and to Domenico’s family."
And they are taking care of myriad other families, too, thanks to their childrenswear. "Mothers love it," exclaims Gabbana of the appetite for items that can reach four figures for a delicate lace gown. "Italian women love to dress up, and I think a lot of mothers enjoy passing that on to their daughters. Little girls always want to put their mammas’ clothes on – why not give them their own?"
His enthusiasm for Instagram has provoked a dialogue about the pleasures of dressing up: "Mothers and fathers get in touch from all over the world, sending pictures of themselves with their children in Dolce & Gabbana. That’s such wonderful feeling, seeing families enjoy it."
The Swiss billionaires, Chinese moguls and Saudi princesses who frequent their fantastical bi-annual Alta Moda and Alta Sartoria couture shows are not averse to spending tens of thousands on a couture creation for their little ones.
The designers have been known to recreate Alta Moda (for women) and Alta Sartoria (for men) as clothes for children, by special request. One family asked for a christening gown, while a bride who was having a dress crafted asked for similar couture confections for her flower girls. ‘Just don’t get cake on it, I tell them!’ says Gabbana, laughing.
