Dolce & Gabbana tastes the rainbow with fine jewellery in glorious technicolour
There was a coat on Dolce & Gabbana's spring/summer 2019 runway that wasn't so much a technicolour dream as a kaleidoscopic chimera. Embellished with 3D organza flowers, sequins and crystals, it had a rainbow of silk streamers fluttering from the hem, and the sleeves were trimmed with primary-coloured tassels.
The model wore it with a matching miniskirt and pom-pom-covered knee-high boots, topped off with a flower crown. Subtle it was not.
Gleeful exuberance is Dolce & Gabbana's modus operandi, and the Italian designers see no reason to tone it down when using precious gems. Their new fine-jewellery collection, Rainbow, scatters 31 gemstones around the neck with abandon: amethyst, topaz, tourmaline, peridot, beryl and quartz; a mishmash of cuts in colours that go from sky blue and lime green to sunset orange and Dairy Milk purple - and back again.
Bangles, rings and hoop earrings are more orderly, rainbows of precise princess-cut gemstones neatly contained between rails of gold. But turn these pieces to the side and a swirling openwork inspired by the decorative motifs of the Bourbon era reveals a baroque opulence that is whimsical and regal at once - the perfect accompaniment to a flower crown.
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