To celebrate their feel-good ode to Italy of a show (’50s full-skirted dresses scattered with daisies and poppies, drifting Capri caftans, wicker market shopping baskets as purses, and a finale of shift dresses, each printed with a picture-postcard view of a notably scenic Italian city), Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce threw a dinner party for the fun-loving clients they had invited to enjoy their show.
Their darkly glamorous martini bar, in the center of Milan’s luxury shopping hub, had been transformed into a traditional Italian bistrot with tables set in the central covered courtyard, spread with red-and-white gingham tablecloths, and garlands of lightbulbs slung from the ceilings, like a party in a Sicilian village town square. Stands covered in striped cotton, like those in a classic Italian fruit and vegetable market, were heaving with cheeses from around the country, and cakes that included rum babas the size of garden buckets.
Gabbana arrived wearing one of the waitstaff’s covetable Italian map-printed aprons, and ended the evening improvising whimsical headdresses, notably using a red cotton napkin tied as a pirate’s bandana, fetchingly trimmed with clusters of garlic and chili peppers.
Guests had flown in from as far afield as Russia, China, and Jordan, and forget the supermoon—the dazzle of D-flawless diamonds twinkling on French manicured hands ignited this room. Guests, naturally, dressed the viva l’Italia part. Toronto’s Sylvia Mantella wore a trained, leopard-print sheath so close-fitting that she swayed to the music, Coco Brandolini D’Adda was dressed in antique scarlet lace, and the Bolshoi’s delightful ballerina, Maria Bogdanovich, wore a romantic ballet-length gown printed with scattered red roses (well, she is just about to dance Giselle in Moscow).
There was an abundance of food worthy of the most indulgent Italian mama. Risotto balls and all those cheese tastings were followed by pasta alla norma and then veal Milanese, and all those carb bomb cakes, and then the central tables were cleared to make way for the band and singer from Capri’s famed Anema e Core nightclub, where Dolce & Gabbana had celebrated its Alta Moda show last summer.
With the beloved Italian hit songs of yesteryear warbling around the cyclamen and mauve-lit room, guests literally danced on tables, the limoncello flowed, and too much fun was had by all.
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