Milan — Four years ago, Stefano Gabbana, one half of the designer duo behind Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana, allegedly called the Kardashians “the cheapest people in the world” in an Instagram comment that was later deleted. it was done. Now, the label is working with Kim Kardashian, who tweaked Dolce & Gabbana’s style from the 1990s and early 2000s, for the brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection.

At the press conference on Saturday morning, Kardashian sat on a leopard-print throne while Gabbana and Dolce sat on flower-print chairs adorned with face decals.

“We were surprised because they said we would never look back,” Gabbana said. But in the wake of the brand’s online prominence after Kourtney Kardashian’s wedding to musician Travis Barker in May 2022, Dolce decided to give her family a series of Dolce & Gabbana looks. and the ceremony was held at the villa. Do more, they said.

Kardashian answered pre-screened questions about her personal style and experience working with the collection. “But in my soul, I am also a very voluptuous Italian mob wife.”

The star’s love of Dolce & Gabbana has been around for ages. Perhaps no other brand has worn as much as she has traveled from her wealthy Calabasas teens to popular reality to her star and highly successful serial entrepreneur. (Some of her first purchases as a fashion-obsessed teenager were a few D&G dresses she still owns.) And she and her family are dedicated to You are certainly not the only one working on

Adding to the controversy that has raged online over the past few years when people in the industry talk about Dolce & Gabbana is that their customers are happy and loyal. We have built a loyal clientele that buys our dresses season after season. It fuels a robust ready-to-wear business that helps the label generate well over $1 billion in annual revenue, according to public records.

Hours after the press conference, the main event took place and Kardashian, the face of Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2022 campaign, fulfilled a client’s ultimate dream: a design collaboration.

At the venue, an event space in an old movie theater called the Metropole, guests are greeted with clouds of cotton candy-scented smoke and a large black-and-white movie poster featuring the image of Kardashian with unbleached blonde hair. was given. “Chao, Kim” is printed on the front. It sounded like circus music was playing in the background.

The show kicked off with a black-and-white movie in which Kardashian lived out her mob wife fantasy, sitting at a table in a crowded restaurant full of men in suits. In a moment, she carefully ate a plate of spaghetti in red sauce, rotating the pasta with a fork and tapping the corners of her mouth with a white linen napkin. As she moved on to a salad of arugula with lemon, her models appeared in stunningly finished looks that differed by about 20% from her original model.

It was a Greatest Hits collection drawn from the edge of Dolce & Gabbana. Their softer, flowerier look was nowhere near. Instead, the focus was on the ribcage, with a few iterations of the bustier and a stunt of red to a limited palette of black, white, and silver. Still, it’s far from minimalist, with textures coming from bejeweled (tap pants, or embellished low-rise cowboy jeans), shiny silver leather, and the show’s only print: leopard print. rice field.

Kardashian seems to take the project seriously, implying that she intended to create a collection that would appeal to clients across generations and with a variety of body types. If I see it, my sister will die,” she said. (Models of diverse ethnicities and sizes reflect this.)

Kardashian didn’t walk the show. Instead, she appeared at the end of the finale wearing a black, crystal-encrusted dress that delicately hugged her frame, and designers were soon enlisted for the bow.

Kardashian has tagged her name on apparel before, but this experiment should be successful if it’s based solely on the merits of the clothes. We continue to create works that clients like us want to buy.