I wanna live La Dolce Vita!

Musings on Dolce & Gabbana's Men's Fall/Winter 2025 show

“I like the bass,” my friend Charlotte texted me, after I sent her a link to Dolce & Gabbana’s Men’s Fall/Winter 2025 show titled, Paparazzi. The funky riffs simultaneously pulsed through my phone speakers as I embarked upon my second watch, the first being unintentionally dedicated to the ambiance, so captivating I barely studied the clothes.

As the curtains opened and the first model strutted through the pack of identically-clad ‘photographers,’ evoking the image of some space-age-ified parting of the Red Sea, I gasped aloud. I was immediately reminded of something Matty Healy, lead singer of The 1975, once said in an interview. To paraphrase, there are certain pieces of art that feel so obvious, as if they’ve existed forever, lying in wait for someone to “unearth” them. As Healy felt about his chart-topping Somebody Else, I must imagine Domenico and Stefano felt about their recent show. Of course the runway should be red velvet, of course there should be a pack of sartorial men parodying some mythically respectable paparazzi. It feels so right. Like something I’ve seen before yet, at the same time, something completely new.

At the center of the captivating set and score, the clothes too represent something entirely different from their Fashion Week companions. While designers like Louis Vuitton and Prada, though different in execution, displayed masculinity through downturned chins and vague, industrial backdrops, Dolce & Gabbana offered confidence and nonchalance. While other sets perhaps matched in mesmerism, like Zegna’s Severance-esque indoor pastures (complete with Irving Bailiff!) or Yves Saint Laurent’s fallen chandeliers (though I’ll argue that even the blandest of scenes can be made cinematic by the addition of Leonard Cohen’s “You Want it Darker”), none equaled in energy.

It takes true imagination to disguise heavy wool as something sexy, with the lightness of summer. Each piece screams I look hot and I know it, thanks to the combination of styling and the mise-en-scène. The clothes complement the ambience, as if belonging to some greater exhibition, defying the hubris which so often entangles a good collection in an inconsistent narrative.

And what it does best of all? It makes you want to wear the clothes. It makes them irresistible. There are 50-odd attractive men who cannot stop taking photos, pausing only to admire their shots and show their neighbors, who no doubt have the same frames paused on their screens. It removes your liberty as a viewer to decide how you feel. It says you love it, you want it. And this, of course, is a risk. If the collection was objectively bad, it would be kitschy, egoistic. But oh, is it good.

The pieces themselves are crafted with the earned confidence of a label that has dressed celebrities of the highest notability for decades. The evolution from more casual, after-party-type looks, to superbly tailored evening wear, isn’t revolutionary, though the relatively minimalistic styling managed to uniquely juxtapose an air of relatability — a sense that someone really could just leave their house like this — with a twinge of exclusivity, you could, but you won’t. The thick-framed glasses paired with most looks add a certain je ne sais quoi, sophisticated yet casual, and play into both the 1960s La Dolce Vita era and today’s fascination with glasses as a statement accessory.

Each ‘Week,’ designers raise the bar of not just styling, but set design, scoring, even seating charts, eager to do what’s never been done before and to offer a hungry audience something fresh, that hopefully, if done well, will stick in their teeth long enough to satisfy until the next big thing. While I, like most, am guilty of wanting more, wanting new, and wanting now, I am happy to stay here for a while. Where the clothes dazzle, the men charm, and life is sweet.