Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda events are always an exultant affair — a celebration of fashion, food, craftsmanship and culture — but this year, to mark 10 years since the launch of the duo’s distinctly Italian answer to haute couture, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana turned the dial up yet another notch.
As guests settled in front of the Cathedral of Syracuse, a Unesco World Heritage site in the historic centre of Sicily’s Ortigia Island, Mariah Carey made a suitably dramatic entrance, flanked by the designers and draped in a figure-hugging Dolce & Gabbana dress.
She took her seat among an already stellar line-up of celebrity guests — an ever-youthful-looking Sharon Stone, Helen Mirren in a voluminous striped gown, Drew Barrymore, Lupita Nyong’o, singer Ciara with her husband and children dressed in matching shades of gold and white, Casey Affleck, Kris Jenner, Christian Bale, Monica Belluci, Heidi Klum and Vanessa Bryant.
This year’s anniversary event represented a homecoming for Dolce, who was born in Sicily, and was an ode to Syracuse, a city more than 2,000 years old, in the south-east of the island. “Siracusa is a special place for us,” Gabbana explained before the show. “It is in the most southern part of Sicily, in front of Africa. I love the feeling, I love the mood, I love the stones, the colours, the people.”
The Alta Moda presentation was preceded by a re-enactment of Cavalleria rusticana, a classic Italian opera by Pietro Mascagni from the late 1800s, on a catwalk set up in front of the famed cathedral. A tale of passion, betrayal, family and ultimately, tragedy, it set the tone for a show laden with drama. “Tonight, we have tried to create an experience that is about the Dolce & Gabbana DNA,” said Dolce.
The collection was a heartfelt love letter to the Sicilian woman, one of Dolce & Gabbana’s most enduring muses. In a marked move away from the brand’s signature prints and vibrant, Mediterranean-inspired colour palette, the collection was rendered almost entirely in black. “If you ask someone, in their imagination, what the Sicilian woman wears, it is black,” said Gabbana.
The collection of 106 outfits was a distillation of the brand’s core codes. Appearing at the top of a set of steps as the church bells tolled, the opening look consisted of a short white dress with oversized sleeves shaped like cherubic statues. Next up, full-sized wings extending from the shoulders and voluminous, bridal-esque gowns covered in three-dimensional blooms.
Angelic white quickly made way for its antithesis, black, in the form of laser-cut gowns and coat dresses, corsets, shrouds, veils, head scarves and stern pencil skirts. Black lace, stiff corsetry, sheer stockings, plays in transparency and religious iconography heightened the ever-present interplay between sensuality and modesty.
Fresh from taking Paris Fashion Week by storm, Saudi model Amira Al Zuhair walked the runway in a calf-length black dress with subtle transparent panelling on the legs, arms and midriff.
Pops of yellow, lime green, pink, red and orange cut through the otherwise sombre palette, while oversized blazer dresses were laden with gold embroidery, dazzling crystal work or floral appliques, and paired with rhinestone-covered boots or delicate, flowery tights. A hot pink micro skirt with a matching cropped jacket shimmered emphatically as the model moved, while another silver dress was befitting of a Marvel heroine.
“Alta Moda, for me, is about surprises,” said Gabbana. "Every time we start a collection, I want to surprise myself. Every time is a challenge. I want to say something more. And I am full of curiosity."
ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
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- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
Top 10 most polluted cities
- Bhiwadi, India
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- Hotan, China
- Delhi, India
- Jaunpur, India
- Faisalabad, Pakistan
- Noida, India
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- Bagpat, India
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
