Baroque. Baroque. Baroque. From Spring-Summer ’25. In Rome. It is the true “god” of fashion, the unveiled face of our time, in its continuous metamorphosis, always beyond, without regard for limits and boundaries, for the duo Dolce & Gabbana, who interpret the dream of glory, which is found in the secret rooms of everyone, absolutely everyone, even those who claim not to follow fashion, citing a non-existent classicism or a superficial Franciscanism. These two were the first, after the swift departure of Gianni Versace's life, to follow a path that comes from the “south of the mind,” where the midday heat clashes, always summer, even when the calendar hints at the coldest days, where crests, songs, and processions mingle with the Bacchic and erotic spirit, which led the two German barons, Von Gloeden and Von Pluschow, to found the Taormina of rustic deities, of the festivals of Cybele and Demeter, with the orgiastic cults of Silenus and Pan; I had already noticed it during their Syracuse collection, when the duo from the acclaimed D&G, intoxicated themselves and intoxicated us with the veiled nudity and ostentatious pretences of Lucia, who resides well in the temple of Minerva. The parallelism of the runways that echo the sacred/separate, without ever mocking it, as in a Gattopardesque film scene, accessible in Rome, no longer burdened by the anxiety of distance, because the place has indeed been reached. And the place is where Borromini, Bernini, Caravaggio and Artemisia wander the streets and squares, unnoticed, as if they were one I would like to say university, but I stop for too much risk) of us.
While in the heat of the moment we are tempted to let go, how can those who are bound by their nobility not do so, and indeed their ears hear what the Multi They say, “noblesse oblige”. It’s Italy, “lads”, its history of eagles and crows, its carnival disguises with oblique masks, from Giufà in Sicily, to Pulcinella in Naples, to the thundering Pasquino in Rome, to Arlecchino in Venice, as they turn and look annoyed, towards the ruler Cagliostro and the lover Casanova. All of this in the Romanesque style of D&G, perhaps not, because there is more, much more, which however is not absolute, but bound by a fascination that envelops ritual and myth with a transparent, yet strong, veil, because modernity is eclecticism par excellence, with a physicality wrapped in a great, visceral, Saturnalian sense of smell, but also a lot of animating, worthy Dionysianism. Perfume di Suskind, which is precisely what is needed to confront the eternal crisis, the one that never wants to pass and even when it does, lingers in the fears, almost nightmares, of day and night. There is a maieutics, in this exhibition, a keystone that makes one see and touch and smell, awakening the primal spirits of life even amidst the haste of clocks, within this present of infinite baroque excess, which makes luxury a test of the essence of the ’eternal”.
KLESSIDRA | EDITED BY FRANCESCO GALLO MAZZEO
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