Dolce & Gabbana

Photo: Instagram.com/mozabintnasser
As one of the world’s best-dressed royals, HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser‘s public appearances have long been looked out for by fashion enthusiasts. The Qatari royal served up her highly-regarded sophisticated sense of style once again this week when she stepped out to open the ‘Baghdad: Eye’s Delight’ exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha. The showcase aims to celebrate Baghdad as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, paying homage to its past and highlighting its importance in the 20th century as a political, economic, and intellectual hub. Curated by Dr Julia Gonnella, director of the MIA, and the museum’s curatorial team, the exhibition features objects on loan from world-renowned museums.
Photo: Instagram.com/mozabintnasser
For the occasion, the royal was dressed in a stunning abaya by Dolce & Gabbana, picked from the Italian fashion house’s Alta Mode line, thus making it that much more unique. The statement piece came covered entirely in multicolored sequins that were arranged in geometric motifs, Arabesques, flowers, and palm trees, as a tribute to the ancient Oriental rugs that were knotted by hand.
Photo: Instagram.com/mozabintnasser
Just like the hours of work and care that go into creating a rug, the A-line coat too required extreme patience in the threading of its sequins. Its colors also nodded to carpentry and the significance of colors and combinations they use with white representing purity and innocence, red for the principle of life, blue expressing hope, and gold standing for wealth, power, and prestige. The royal paired the abaya with complementing gold accessories, a navy blue chiffon headscarf, and a bold red lip to top it all off.
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Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
Some of the world’s biggest stars arrived in Sicily last weekend to set off four days of quintessential Italian festivities as Dolce & Gabbana marked 10 years of Alta Moda. The Italian equivalent of haute couture, its showcase is aptly hosted at historic locations such as Agrigento and Taormina, with the sole focus laid on the country’s folklore and craftsmanship. Iconic landmarks like palaces and churches have witnessed this for years, with celebrations nodding to traditional singing, dancing, and horse-drawn carriages, all of which are also reflected in the pieces that come down the runway. It is no less than a family affair with the reunion of the house’s well-heeled clients, who also have the opportunity to take the Alta Moda pieces home and make their couture appointments at the venue.
The weekend’s events, which marked a significant milestone this time, were that much grander. Below, find out all about Dolce & Gabbana’s 10-year anniversary of Alta Moda in Siracusa, Sicily.

The stars in attendance

Star power was in full force at the show, with the front row featuring the likes of Sharon Stone, Mariah Carey, Helen Mirren, Drew Barrymore, Lupita Nyong’o, Ciara, and Emma Roberts—all of whom were dressed in extravagant looks that spoke to the scale of the show. Carey’s chosen look was a fishtail dress with a Majolica-inspired print and a crown to match, while Mirren’s pick came with metallic multicolor stripes and puffed sleeves. Barrymore made a statement in flowers, which bloomed from her bright pink dress as well as her hair, and Stone stood out in a gold top paired with blue pants linked to a floor-grazing train patterned with flowers.
An ode to Sicily, its women, and the makings of Dolce & Gabbana

“For me, it all started in Sicily. My life, my profession, my career. And that’s where everything always comes back,” shared Domenico Dolce with Vogue Arabia. A homecoming for one-half of the world’s most celebrated fashion duos, the show was preceded by a reenactment of Cavalliera Rusticana, a late 1800s opera by Pietro Mascagni about a pair of love triangles who face love, betrayal, and tragedy. As it set the mood for the collection outside Siracusa Cathedral, 106 pieces made their way down the runway at Duomo Square, paying homage to the cathedral’s patron saint, Lucia of Syracuse—a Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She was venerated through grieving black, which was also one of the ways in which the designers honored the roots of their fashion house founded in 1986. The abundance of black—the color worn by Sicilian widows—from the early years of Dolce & Gabbana was reimagined for larger-than-life Alta Moda in delicate lace, intricate embroidery, and sensual corsetry. Golden threads and baroque details nodding to byzantine tiles heightened the opulence, while the veiled “widows” on the runway were contrasted by brides—one in a short white dress with cherub wings, and another in a gown with padded embroidery and a matching headpiece. As lavish as they were, every creation called to mind what Dolce said at a press conference before the show: “It’s not just the clothes, the two meters of pearls, of pleats. It’s not just one dress – it’s a style of life.”
Treasures of the cave

Few designers can have the fashion cognoscenti make their way to a natural cave to view high jewelry‚ and Dolce and Gabbana availed their prowess for just that. After viewing the Alta Moda collection, stars, clients, and journalists entered the ancient Grotta dei Cordari (Ropemakers Grotto) in the heart of Sicily, where the glittering Alta Gioielleria collection was unveiled. Once a stone quarry that lent its limestone to Sicily’s beauty, and a prison in fourth century BC, the Grotta dei Cordari evolved from a place of captivity into a garden full of lemon and orange trees typical of the Mediterranean landscape. The picturesque location showcased the new exclusive collection featuring one-of-a-kind jewels that celebrate Italian craftsmanship, combined with the most spectacular gems. Highlights include the Sicilia necklace featuring a 100.10-carat yellow pear-shaped diamond, and the Miracolo earrings with four diamonds from the same rough. The piece is inspired by the myth of Princess Sicilia, who was exiled from her home to escape death by a monster, but ended up on a lush but deserted island, with its only inhabitant being a beautiful young man. The necklace’s yellow diamond is a representation of the sands and lemon trees of the island, which is now known as Sicily.
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Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2021
Dolce & Gabbana and Moncler are the latest luxury brands to ban animal fur.Dolce & Gabbana will continue to collaborate with the fur artisans in its supply chain, incorporating more sustainable faux fur alternatives, as well as recycled materials, the Italian fashion house said in a statement today. The announcement was supported by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International.
“The entire fashion system has a significant social responsibility role that must be promoted and encouraged: we will integrate innovative materials into our collections and develop environmentally friendly production processes, while at the same time preserving artisans’ jobs and know-how otherwise in danger of fading,” group communication and marketing officer Fedele Usai said in a statement. “A more sustainable future can’t contemplate the use of animal fur.”
Moncler said it will stop sourcing fur in 2022, last week, as part of its work with Italian organization LAV, another representative of the Fur Free Alliance. The last collection to feature fur — including Moncler’s signature puffer jackets — will be Autumn/Winter 2023.
Momentum is building: German e-commerce retailer Mytheresa will no longer offer fur products from Spring/Summer 2022 onwards, and stopped buying exotic skins in Spring/Summer 2021. US retailer Neiman Marcus plans to phase out all fur products by early 2023, a move which includes closing its 22 fur departments across Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores. Outdoor brand Canada Goose plans to phase out fur by the end of 2022; and French conglomerate Kering went fur-free in September last year, with all collections to cease using animal fur from Autumn/Winter 2022 onwards, a pledge Gucci already took in 2017. “The world has changed, along with our clients, and luxury naturally needs to adapt to that,” CEO and chairman François-Henri Pinault said in a statement at the time.
Fur-free announcements often come after long-term engagement between luxury brands and animal welfare organizations.
“The amount of companies going fur-free in the last year is staggering,” says Humane Society fashion policy director PJ Smith. “The majority of luxury brands are fur-free now, with very few left selling fur. The elephant in the room is LVMH.” LVMH could not immediately be reached for comment. LVMH has its own animal-based raw materials sourcing charter, which commits to regulate sourcing of fur, leather, exotic leather, wool and feathers, traceability of origin and supply chains; and respect for workers, the environment and biodiversity throughout the different stages of each of the animal-based supply chains.
“There’s competition among brands now as to who is the best on animal welfare,” Smith continues. “Companies are starting to see that they can do well by doing good. They might ban fur first and take additional steps in the future, phasing out exotic skins, angora and down, while investing in next generation plant-based materials like mycelium.”
Originally published in Voguebusiness.com

Dolce & Gabbana in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia
After presenting its remarkable collections around the world, Dolce & Gabbana brought a most regal show the historic location in Saudi Arabia.
Once again, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have proven that they know how to create magic, with their breathtaking Al Ula presentation. Created in the heart of Italy, the fashion house’s very first fashion show in the region took place on January 27 in Saudi Arabia’s most historic location, Al Ula.
Known for its remarkable creations across the globe, Dolce & Gabbana celebrated its big moment in the Kingdom by lighting up the awe-inspiring structures of Al Ula with a regal showcase that presented its Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria and Alta Gioielleria.
The Alta Moda collection started off with a series of all-gold ensembles reflecting the bright lights as models transformed into royalty on the runway. The looks were topped off with decadents crowns and statement jewelry. Menswear picks gave prince-worthy pieces a modern spin. The next set of looks to showcase on the Al Ula runway brought exotic blooms to life with saturated hues and intense pops of color. The show also included a carefully selected curation of modest looks, including kaftans, which made the collection even more special given the location. The Dolce & Gabbana show came to an end—with a standing ovation—with breathtaking gowns that looked straight out of a fairytale.
To add to its big moment in the Kingdom, Dolce & Gabbana will also exhibit its collections within Maraya (the world’s largest mirrored building). Visitors in the region, for the first time, will be offered the rare opportunity to meet the Dolce & Gabbana premiere and master tailors for a private fitting and take home their bespoke off-the-runway pieces, all while exploring the exclusive space from January 28-31.
Below, take a closer look at some of the most stunning pieces from the showcase.

Dolce & Gabbana. Photographed by Domen / Van De Velde
After presenting its remarkable collections around the world, Dolce & Gabbana is bringing its designs closer to home: AlUla, Saudi Arabia, to be specific. The heritage city will play host to the Italian fashion house’s first show in the Kingdom which presents the Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria, and Alta Gioielleria collections on January 27. What’s more, Dolce & Gabbana will also exhibit the collection in Maraya, known as the world’s largest mirrored building. Here, visitors will be offered the rare opportunity to meet the Dolce & Gabbana premiere and master tailors for a private fitting and take home their bespoke off-the-runway pieces, all while exploring the exclusive space from January 28-31.
Dolce & Gabbana Alta Sartoria. Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
As part of the AlUla Moments season, the awe-inspiring structures of the site will come alive further with the vibrant creations of designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana displayed in the one-of-a-kind presentation. The fashion show is taking place alongside the Ikmah Fashion Cavalry Show at the iconic location of Jabal Ikmah, described by many as a huge open-air library due to its historical inscriptions. As the show’s name suggests, guests can not only expect male and female models, but also 12 Arabian horses dressed in custom accessories in a celebration of their spirit and beauty.
Jabal Ikmah. Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
The Ikmah Fashion Cavalry Show is one of the most exciting events taking place during Winter at Tantora, the first festival in the Kingdom to highlight its heritage and talent for both local and international visitors. Running until February 12, Winter at Tantora is made of the AlUla Arts, AlUla Skies, and AlUla Wellness festivals.
Tickets to the Ikmah Fashion Cavalry Show will go on sale from January 10, 2022, on Experiencealula.com
Read Next: From Dolce & Gabbana to Aquazzura, Top International Designers Pay Homage to the Beauty of Saudi Arabia

Photography: Nima Benati
Picture this: Jennifer Hudson is singing live ‘Nessun Dorma’ and a rainbow crowns the glorious Piazzetta San Marco in Venice, where La Serenissima used to invite ambassadors and rulers visiting the city to disembark. It seems like a dream, right? Leave it to Dolce & Gabbana to make dreams come true. The Italian brand presented its Alta Moda show, the Italian equivalent of haute couture, in a scene worthy of a Tintoretto painting.
One of the biggest editions ever in terms of number of guests, the Venice showcase was, naturally, as grand as its host city: from the arrival of 100 models on 100 gondolas, to the guest list that included Jennifer Lopez, Ciara, Kris Jenner, Normani, and Dame Helen Mirren. There was also Sean Combs, Monica Bellucci, and Heidi Klum, who were especially excited to see their daughters walk the runway.
Cristina Trincanato. Photography: Nima BenatiA venetian art lawyer and mother who recently made her passion for art her career, trincanato loves to travel and immerse herself in new cultures. She recharges with long walks to discover new places and hidden gems in the city. Trincanato likes to host dinners and gatherings at her house, meeting new friends who share the same passions. She considers venice the city of art and magic, and an attraction for international audiences, since every week she welcomes a new friend coming from abro
As per tradition for Alta Moda, all the clothes are handmade, with the richest fabrics sourced and the most exquisite artisanal technics employed from all over Italy. “In our country, we have the best craftsmanship in the world. And it’s the best in the world because we do it with passion,” explain the designers, also pointing out, “but don’t dare to ask an artisan how many hours something took to make, that’s not the point.” From the endless detail of the dresses seen on the runway, we can guess that countless hours were invested in the precious parade of designs sourcing silks, brocades, velvets, glass and crystals, embroideries, and precious fabrics. “When you see something metallic looking like gold… it’s real gold,” reminds Domenico Dolce.
Perine Renard, Giulia Bevilacqua, Cristina Trincinato and Silvia Paulon. Photography: Nima Benati
Photography: Nima Benati
Like out of a Casanova novel, there were beaded dresses that reminded of colorful Murano chandeliers, magnificent looks recreating iconic Venetian mosaics, jackets with XL shoulders and harlequin masks, and spectacular capes embellished with postcard images of the city. In a move to make the collection feel more suitable for a younger audience, there were also fewer of the usual ball gowns, with silhouettes becoming more playful and youthful, especially when paired with flats and rebellious colored hair, from pink to green. This year, maybe because the world is still recovering from Covid-19 and some are still shy of full-on glamour, not all the looks were so opulent, with a selection of dresses that impressed with their simplicity, avoiding any embroidery, and just relying on beautifully cut fabrics and rich colors.
Photography: Nima Benati

The metaverse should eventually bring mega bucks to luxury goods players.According to a new report by Morgan Stanley, social gaming could add up to $20 billion to the sector’s total addressable market, while NFTs in the form of luxury collectibles could become a $25 billion business in Morgan Stanley’s “blue-sky analysis.”
While revenues from these digital streams are negligible now, metaverse gaming and NFTs could represent 10 percent of luxury’s addressable market by 2030, the investment firm predicts.
“One in five Roblox gamers update their avatar daily; image is everything in virtual experiences,” the report says. “Revenue share deals are on the rise and music events have potential to reach vast audiences of young spenders.”

Balenciaga, which launched “skins” for Fortnite players in September, is seen as having a first-mover advantage, and the fashion house’s parent, Kering, is seen as “best placed” among luxury players “given the group’s brand demographics” and its “head start in innovative digital collaborations.”

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Morgan Stanley cautions that the metaverse will take many years to develop, with NFTs and social gaming, which includes concerts, as the most attractive near-term opportunities.
Gaming collaborations are seen as “more advanced in their ability to generate revenue and a wider halo effect for the industry,” while NFTs are seen as more profit-generating. The former is seen representing 40 percent of metaverse revenues, but only 20 percent of profits by 2030, the report says.
As people spend more time interacting with friends on social media and gaming platforms than in real life, so grows the opportunity for digital fashions and luxury goods. Heritage names, “with their vast IP build over decades, are set to be the main beneficiaries” as demand grows for branded goods and clothing for avatars, according to Morgan Stanley.
For example, Gucci sold a digital version of its Dionysus bag on Roblox for about $4,115 last August, which is roughly 20 percent more than the physical object.
Watchmaker Jacob & Co. is touted as the first luxury brand to sell an NFT: a one-of-a-kind watch that sold at auction for $100,000, while Dolce & Gabbana netted $5.7 million by auctioning a nine-piece collection of NFTs alongside some actual couture garments.

A Karl Lagerfeld figurine in the form of an NFT.
Courtesy of Karl Lagerfeld

While brands including Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Karl Lagerfeld, Clinique and Givenchy Parfums have also ventured into NFTs, Morgan Stanley estimates that NFTs from luxury brands will account for less than 1 percent of all NFT transactions this year.
“Luxury is all about control and brand equity protection. So, as happened with the advent of e-commerce, luxury brands have so far adopted a conservative approach, only testing the waters,” the report says.
Yet the metaverse offers luxury brands exposure to teenage customers, and male customers, who currently account for only 30 percent of luxury purchases.
“Digital avatars, NFTs and gaming partnerships offer fertile ground to build relationships with these demographics and recruit new/future customers,” the report says. “Brands are in a proof-of-concept stage for both NFTs and metaverse gaming, and the evidence to date is that each concept works. Next comes monetization.”

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Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana has joined in the UAE’s 50th National Day celebrations with an exclusive collection. Inspired by the colors of the UAE flag, the collection will be released in mid-October 2021, and will be showcased on the shelves in the house’s boutiques around the country.
Photo: Courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
Inspired by the country’s innovative instinct, dynamism, and strong character, the collection includes NS1 sneakers, shopping bags, keychains, caps, and a purse handle foulard, for men, women, and kids. To illustrate the authenticity of the territory, its birthplace, and its fast development, the Italian fashion house has created the captivating designs in a handwritten style. Words of admiration, loyalty, graffiti, and logos are also painted on the pieces for those looking to display love for their country in style.
The Gold Glass Dress. Photo: Courtesy of UNXD x Dolce & Gabbana
This collection is not the first project to demonstrate the country’s connection with Dolce & Gabbana. In fact, the Italian fashion house has previously shown support by auctioning its first nine-piece NFT (non-fungible token) collection on the Dubai-based digital luxury marketplace, UNXD. Titled Collezione Genesi, it set a record for fashion NFTs by being auctioned for over US $6 million. In this collection, five were physically made designs and the rest were digital pieces exclusively sketched out by the brand’s designers and later used in the metaverse.
Read Next: The Star-Studded Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda Show Was a Scene Worthy of a Tintoretto Painting

Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen breaks down the five biggest takeaways from Dolce & Gabbana’s spring/summer 2022 collection.
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
It was a tribute to the 2000s
If the spirit of the early 2000s has already possessed this season’s runways like the ghost of an MTV Blast from the Past special, Dolce & Gabbana were way ahead of that game. In June, they presented a men’s show devoted to their own memories of the era, so intrinsically linked to their brand. Their women’s show picked up the baton, giving the kids what they wanted: glitzy, glossy, glam 2000s sex appeal, with all the signature Dolce & Gabbana styling you could ask for. “This collection is a symbol of restart[ing] and optimism,” Domenico Dolce told Vogue, highlighting that Dolce & Gabbana’s approach to Noughties nostalgia is a question of “always remembering, never repeating”. “[In this collection], the waist becomes lower, mini-skirts make an unbridled comeback, [and] pants are enriched with laces.”
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
It was lingerie-as-daywear
Brassieres and mini-skirts stole the show, some cut asymmetrically like a Destiny’s Child video, others low-riding to reveal the lace trim of the model’s lingerie. Evening dresses had deeply plunging necklines, while corsets, waspies, and swimsuits once again graduated to outerwear status.
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Noughties denim is back
Denim trousers – the holy grail of Dolce & Gabbana streetwear in the 2000s – paid homage to the ripped manifestations people would queue for hours to get their hands on back in the day. Worn oversized and low-waisted, they revealed the elasticated band of the designers’ branded underwear – true to the way people would style themselves at the time.
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
It was a moment of light
Multi-colored gemstones embellished everything from denim to cocktail dresses and little jackets, contributing some sparkle to a show titled #DGLight. “Light is good therapy for this moment. Now, we need to see light, joy, and happiness in the eyes of people. That’s what we want,” Stefano Gabbana said earlier this summer, commenting on the theme that underpinned his and Domenico Dolce’s men’s show, too. “Twenty-one years ago we came from a period of minimalism where you couldn’t put on a necklace, a color… You had to be just beige and black,” Stefano adds when reflecting on today’s presentation. “We made a comparison on a creative level: in 2000 we emerged from the darkness of an aesthetic that did not represent us and today we come out of a completely different darkness and we see light, so the light is on all the clothes. There is color everywhere: on the trousers, on the shirts, on the dresses, on the bags… everywhere.”
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Jennifer Lopez made a cameo
If the diamanté velcro belts strapped around models’ waists – the same Aaliyah wore in her “Try Again” video in 2000 – didn’t cement the atmosphere, Dolce & Gabbana paid tribute to her contemporary fashion icon of the millennium in a T-shirt adorned with the face of Jennifer Lopez, who attended the designers’ epic Alta Moda show in Venice last month.
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Originally published on Vogue.co.uk

Will anyone spend six figures – or more – on fashion that can only be experienced in the digital realm? Dolce & Gabbana thinks the answer is yes.
Courtesy of UNXD and Dolce & Gabbana
The couture shows are a magnet for the world’s wealthiest fashion-lovers – where they order made-to-measure clothes and high jewelry for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Euro apiece. But what if those garments and baubles didn’t physically exist? Would anyone spend six figures – or more – for one-of-a-kind handcrafted fashion and jewellery that only could only be experienced in the digital realm?
Italian luxury designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are banking on the answer being yes.
This weekend, at the Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda show in Venice, the Italian fashion duo will unveil Collezione Genesi, a nine-piece NFT – or non-fungible token – collection, produced in collaboration with UNXD, a curated marketplace for digital luxury and culture. Five of the Collezione Genesi pieces – two dresses, a men’s suit, and two crowns – are physical creations, designed by Dolce & Gabbana, that have digital versions that can be used in the metaverse – “a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces” – as Mark Zuckerberg recently described it. Four items are entirely bespoke virtual designs, also for the metaverse.
Dolce & Gabbana will present Collezione Genesi to 450 guests in the Venice Casino during the three-day Alta Moda event. On August 28, the collection will also be mounted online, at unxd.com, for all to see. Dolce & Gabbana and UNXD are hoping the online presentation will draw in the “crypto community”, deep-pocketed cryptocurrency investors who spend large sums on NFTs, says UNXD founder and chief executive Shashi Menon.
Dress From A Dream. Photo: Courtesy of UNXD and Dolce & Gabbana
Tens of thousands of interested parties have already signed up on the UNXD site to participate in the auction, which will start on September 9 at 9am CET, and run for six to nine days, depending on the piece.
In the last year, NFTs have become the “it” item in culture and fashion. Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, disrupted the art market in March, when Christie’s sold his unique NFT artwork “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” for an astounding $69 million – the third highest price paid at auction for a work by a living artist, after Jeff Koons’s Rabbit, which went for $91.1 million in 2019, and David Hockney’s “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures),” which sold for $90.3 million, also in 2019. Menon and Dolce & Gabbana believe that Collezione Genesi could be a historic moment in fashion as powerful and disruptive as Beeple’s sale was in the art world.
In fashion, NFTs have swiftly been gaining traction. In April, Kate Moss collaborated with @MITFNT, an anonymous collective, on a digital artwork – a triptych that captured fleeting seconds of the supermodel at the wheel of her car, walking in the woods, and asleep in bed. A Gucci NFT called “Aria”, a three-channel video playing on a loop, inspired by its autumn/winter 2021 collection, sold in a Christie’s online auction last spring for $20,000. Burberry designed a suite of NFT characters and accessories for Mythical Games’s Blankos Block Party. They sold out in a flash, for a total of nearly $400,000. With global video game sales likely topping $180 billion this year – and much of that money spent on in-game assets, like one-of-a-kind avatars and skins – NFTs have the potential to become an enormous revenue generator for the fashion industry.
Following the success of fashion-driven NFTs, Menon and his partners at UNXD, the same team that created the company behind Vogue Arabia, wondered if NFTs and couture could be united.
In April, they approached Dolce & Gabbana, with whom they had worked numerous times at Vogue Arabia, and made their pitch. “There was a lightbulb moment right away,” Menon says. “Everyone understood how consequential this project could be.”
“We have welcomed the invite as a new challenge,” the designers said over email. “Fashion has always been a blend of different worlds, even far apart from each other, and new technologies have fascinated us since our early beginnings. We thought of it as an innovative way to do what we love.”
The Impossible Tiara. Courtesy of UNXD and Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana already knew that Alta Moda would be staged in Venice, so they turned to the city’s glorious artisan heritage of Murano glass for their inspiration. With that, they created a “dress from a dream”, which is actually two dresses: one gold, and one silver, both encrusted with opulent embroidered images of colourful hand blown goblets. For the men’s bespoke collection, Alta Sartoria, they carried on the theme, designing an emerald-green double-breasted suit emblazoned with more ethereal glassware. For their high jewellery collection, Alta Gioilleria, they designed the Lion Crown, a gold-plated silver headpiece framed with lion heads – lions being one of the important symbols of Venice – and embellished with 26 oval cabochon rubies and nine diamonds, and the Doge Crown, inspired by the looming clock tower in Piazza San Marco, and named for the city’s former rulers. Also in silver with gold plate and celestial blue enamel, it bears the Zodiac signs that appear on the clock, as well as seven blue sapphires and 142 diamonds.
Each of these will be auctioned as a package that includes: the physical and the digital versions; the object’s original sketches by Dolce & Gabbana; access to future Dolce & Gabbana couture shows; a two-week installation of all items in Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship store on Via Monte Napoleone in Milan, with the name of the collector on display; a two-week installation in a Dolce & Gabbana store of owner’s choice, anywhere in the world; and a private tour of Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda atelier in Milan.
“This is the first luxury NFT built with real products,” Menon says. “We have bridged physical and meta-physical.”

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Then there are the four digital-only offerings: the Impossible Tiara, comprised of two large red emeralds, 60 smaller red emeralds, and 713 Paraiba neon turquoise tourmalines, and three Impossible Jackets: shimmering men’s blousons that, like the physical dresses and suits, embody the baroque artistry of Venice. Purchasers will receive the sketches and the same experiential perks afforded to those who buy the physical-digital items.
UNXD took sustainability into account when developing the platform to auction the collection, building on Polygon, a blockchain that is 99 percent more energy-efficient than the notoriously high-energy consuming cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or Ethereum.
“The creative process has been the same that we follow when we make our ‘physical’ creations, only that, this time, the final result has been transferred to the virtual world and ‘translated’ into a digital language, breaking down the boundaries between these two realities,” the designers said. “Is it not fascinating?”
While the Dolce & Gabbana NFTs may be trailblazing, they – unlike the Alta Moda couture offerings – will not be one-offs.
“This is why it’s called genesis,” Menon says. “It’s just the beginning.”
Read Next: Everything to Know About Dolce & Gabbana’s Upcoming Shows in Venice
Originally published on Vogue.co.uk