Dolce and Gabbana 

Autumn/ Winter 2013 

Colour Palette- black, yellow, turquoise, beige, gold, silver, red, brown

Garment shapes-basic shift dresses, flared sleeves and hems, fitted dresses and pencil skirts, high round neck line

Textiles Techniques- digital print and embroidery 

Prints- baroque motifs, heavily embroidered and beaded, detailed, decorative, imagery 

Fabric-  silk, lace, 

Key details-  past the knee fitted and flared simple garment shapes, heavily embroidered and printed, using print to create a sense of direction or placement 

Looks-1, fitted pencil skirt and flared sleeved top, heavily printed, 2, simple shift dress and centered paneled dress, 3, fitted long length and sleeve dress imagery print, 4, shift oversized t- shirt top, short under layered skirt, 5, long flared hem and sleeves dress, 6, fitted pencil dress and lace cape. 

Accessories - bags, crowns 

Style.com ReviewBy Nicole Phelps

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana used the golden mosaics of Sicily's Cathedral of Monreale as a starting point for their new Fall collection. They presumably made that design decision months ago: As they put it in their press notes, "the art of mosaic-making is a slow and precise one." They never could've known that, in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation and in the days leading up to the conclave to elect his successor, new shadows would fall on the Church. Amidst headlines in Italian papers this week about sexual intrigue in the Vatican, Dolce & Gabbana sent out a dozen dresses printed with Monreale's famous Byzantine and Venetian mosaics, and just as many lacy frocks in cardinal red. For jewelry, rosaries. 

Theirs is a romanticized view of the Catholic Church, to be sure, one far removed from the tawdriness of contemporary scandals. And in terms of fashion, that vision proved compelling here, blessedly less kitsch than last season's. Credit for that goes in part to the rather more earthly herringbones and checks they used for skirtsuits and coats and one errant pair of bloomers. The menswear materials made for a brief interlude, though. Soon the designers were back at the icon worship, cutting lace dresses with the wide sleeves of altar boys' garments, crafting a bustier from altar-chalice gold, and, in a task that might prove as labor-intensive as those twelfth-century mosaics, hand-beading the evening numbers with religious figures. Their fans will raise an amen to that.

Personal Review-  Dolce and Gabbana's use of decorative surface textures is beautifully structured and considered to create a dramatic emphasis on decorative repeats. The images themselves are built up using heavy embroidery on digital print, creating a 3D surface. Instead of using over complicated construction techniques simple garment shapes has been used, creating a balance between the garments shapes and print used. This allows the print to flow and move across the surface of the body, creating placement and direction through the placement of the print. 

How it would work in my collection- Looking at my own collection I think it is particularly important to consider the use of garment shapes and print together. creating an equal balance between the two through using print as placement. looking at my samples so far I think it would be partially interesting to experiment with shiny fabrics and textures such as metallic leather and foils. Introducing further texture to my hand processed sample. I think the shiny gold embroidery and textures represent Queen Elizabeths presence and grand costumes and decorative interiors.