Show Report
A few of the numbers could have been pulled straight from the racks of Plaza, the King's Road boutique of Ferry's rock couturier par excellence Antony Price.
Is there a more classic male musician for fashion hacks to reference than Bryan Ferry? Well, contentiously perhaps, David Bowie, but I know which side of the fence I'm on. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana know too - this season, for Dolce e Gabbana, it was all about Mr Ferry, quite literally. He loomed large in every possible way: a soundtrack composed entirely of his sounds, the man himself front-row, and even his face emblazoned across t-shirts.
It was Ferry's lothario incarnation from the mid-seventies onwards that caught Dolce e Gabbana's imagination - namely his impeccably-tailored tuxedos, cut with a forties swagger to sit narrow on the hips and wide at the shoulder. That, of course, is no great departure for this duo - Stefano and Domenico are some of the finest tailors Milan has to offer - but Ferry's bravado showmanship lead to a little more glitz and glamour on their catwalk than we've seen for the past few seasons.
A few of the numbers could have been pulled straight from the racks of Plaza, the King's Road boutique of Ferry's rock couturier par excellence Antony Price: cue skinny suits in shot-taffeta or velvet-dotted silk, vibrant scarlet clashing with black, and a pair of sequin-crusted lounge lizard dinner jackets perfect for heavy-duty crooning. The last two were pretty hardcore when it comes to menswear, but they made for great entertainment - while the tuxedos, contrasting skinny bum-freezer jackets with a roomier dropped-crotch trouser - looked fantastic, sans tie, as a new evening proposal.
That, however, wasn't the only story - Dolce e Gabbana are too clever at fashion remixing just to play a straight-up cover, especially one so firmly aimed at after-hours and over-forties. Ferry would never have been caught dead in their shredded denims, pork-pie hats and skinny patent braces, commingling the antithetical sub-cultures of punk, Mod and Rocker with wilful abandon. It was about remixing the styles, not the ethos - and it did work, giving each a contemporary relevance that Dolce e Gabbana's young fans will no doubt fall on with joy. After all, those distressed denims are as much a part of the D&G lexicon as faultless tailoring. To prove that point, just look at the finale, Dolce e Gabbana's favourite tool to throughly hammer home the collection's gist: velvet tuxes, starched shirts and neat bow-ties juxtaposed with distressed jeans. Bryan Ferry would never sport that combo - but many, many others will.
