Dolce & Gabbana Launches Haute Couture

Today Dolce & Gabbana confirmed rumours that it will create a small couture collection for the first time, to be showed July 9th to a group of clients in Taormina, Sicily.

The unveiling will take place far from the classic couture environs of Paris; the eye of the Chambre Syndicale, the governing body of the French couture tradition; and the fashion media. The choice is strategic, for a number for reasons:

1. It maintains the very exclusive, private allure of the couture;

2. It allows Dolce & Gabbana to avoid the stringent requirements the French couture world imposes on any brand that wants to call itself a full-fledged couture house;

3.  It gives them a chance to launch their first collection free of critics, who might not like it!

Apparently a select few — three — media outlets are being invited to the unveiling, but no American newspapers, and not this one.

Still (no sour grapes here!) it’s interesting that Dolce & Gabbana, which closed it’s lower-priced D&G line last year in order to concentrate on its main line, would choose to, effectively, trade-up to couture.

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