December 27, 2016 |
There’s something of one of those old films about ancient Rome in the SS14 Dolce & Gabbana collection. You know, the ones they play midweek on Channel 4, around noon. The ones that start with some idyllic vision of ancient times in black and white, surrounded by a fresco of pale blooms. There are fresco prints on the dresses – on the columns, too. A voiceover starts and the screen slowly fills with colour. “Welcome to ancient Rome,” it says. Or something like that. Then a technicolour panorama of an ancient temple on the water, cutting to Cleopatra in a milky bath, reaching for a loofah. On her head is a gold star, resembling (ever so slightly) a lace doily. But less lacy. More Lurex. “This is Cleopatra,” says the voiceover. “The fabulous Queen of the Nile, whose only resemblance to an iceberg is that no more than one-tenth of her is visible, while nine-tenths, and the better part of her, is beneath the surface. Fate has decreed that the mighty leader of the Roman Empire and Cleopatra should be flung together into the melting pot of history.” Fate also seems to have decreed that that, a few hundred years down the line, they should be flung together by Dolce & Gabbana. Except that they did not slip on Cleopatra’s loofah and plunge headfirst into her bath. Which means that we will never know what she was wearing beneath that milky surface. I like to think it was Look 9: not only is it appropriate for swimming but it also gives the wearer an air of ancient, regal statue, covered in climbing, intertwined blooms. Instead, they looked to history. To Sicily. And Ancient Greece. To 750 BC, when the Ancient Greeks first settled in Sicily. And while it’s true that Cleopatra ruled Egypt, she was of Greek origin and had children with two Romans, so you could say that there’s a vague historical link, from vaguely the same period, but seeing as this is fashion and not a history lesson, historical accuracy is not high on my list of concerns. Take, for example, the dress from Look 28. It’s made of gold coins. Is there anything that could pay better tribute to a mighty leader of the Roman Empire, maybe Julius Caesar, and the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt? Caesar once had his profile on a gold coin, whereas Cleo liked to dress in gold and enjoyed riches, as any pharaoh would. After all, she killed several siblings to get where she did, so why not enjoy the fruits of her sacrifice? Why not celebrate the things you enjoy via fashion? It’s rumoured that she also had a rather wide nose. One to rival Caesar’s. Which begs the question, is it Caesar or Cleo on the Dolce coins? Or is it like one of those weird Magic Eye things, where if you look at it from one angle you see Caesar, but from another you see Cleo? What better way to pay tribute to a queen and the island from which you hail?
Taken from Issue 50 of 10 Magazine, photographer Jason Lloyd-Evans
