Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring 2013 collection

Compared to Dolce & Gabbana’s last collection for Fall 2012 (fashion writer Tim Blanks called it “opulent gilded arrogance”), Spring 2013 is less glamorous and a lot more approachable. Two things impress me about the new collection: the generously-fitted, softly-tailored pieces reminiscent of my favourite Italian designer Giorgio Armani, and the casting of models who aren’t an army of clone hunks with standard issue 8-packs and identically angled jaws.

The refreshing variety of male models lends the clothes a greater empathy than they would have otherwise possessed. I never cared much for D&G before because I couldn’t identify with their regular models. I’m not 6 feet tall with a classically handsome face and the musculature of a Greco-Roman god (well, only on Tuesdays), and the clothes were usually cut to fit this masculine ideal. Altering their proportions to suit someone of my diminutive stature would only make me look like some runty kid wearing clothes that are too grown up for him. This ill-fitted ‘look’ may have a certain insouciant charm to it (like much of the D&G spring collection), but I would feel awkward in clothes that seem forced on me.

A selection from Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2013:

 

 

I’m also very much liking D&G’s recent ad campaigns. The semi-sepia and colour photographs of multi-generational Italians (including the delightful Monica Bellucci) in traditional clothes with a D&G update are heartwarming and tender. I do prefer the understated designs and muted colours of heritage Italian menswear over the loud, busy patterns found in traditional British and American styles. Give me plain pinstripes over tartan, houndstooth or glen plaid any day.

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