Sicily is the home of many things. The Godfather. Mount Etna. Sicilian baroque. And Dolce & Gabbana. It is, apparently, the clue to everything. To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to see Italy at all, or something like that. And by “seeing”, the person who probably said that meant actually, physically seeing. As in being there. And not watching The Godfather. Usually, we’d agree with the opinion of someone whose quote we found at random on Wikipedia, but then we saw the Dolce & Gabbana show and found that you can experience Sicily without going there. All you need is for someone to transport a small village, complete with its handsome, dark-haired residents, to a different town – say, Milan, where it just so happens you will be, because, it’s fashion week, so really, where else would you be? Anyway, Sicily and clothes. A flat cap, known as a tascu. Admittedly, it’s pretty much how you would imagine a flat cap to look. It is even made of tweed. In fact, it was adopted by Sicilians in the early 20th century as a driving cap. And though it is not of Sicilian origin, it has become so associated with the island’s inhabitants that you could almost forget that it was first worn by English nobles in the 18th century. Which would lead you to conclude, logically, that Sicilians have far more flare than the English when it comes to matters of dress. Take Dolce & Gabbana’s prints, for example. Shirts with wide collars are open to reveal the clavicle, and are printed in warm oranges and reds, depicting scenes of knights in shining armour riding to battle, religious icons, or even just bold horizontal stripes, and spliced with white. All worn with a loose, pleat-front trouser. Either cropped, or rolled up to the ankle and worn with a bare leg and a simple, woven-leather, lace-up sandal. The trousers are belted. High. Up around the waist. The proper waist, though, not what people think of as the waist, which is actually the hips. It creates the illusion of a meatier physique. Of muscle honed through years of pulling nets of fish (maybe sardines) from the sea at dawn. Sicilians fish. We know this. Because Dolce & Gabbana once did nets. To represent the Sicilian fisherman. This collection is a natural progression. From sea to dry land. From working week to Sunday best. The many faces of the Sicilian man.
by Natalie Dembinska
