Justin Bieber Was All Over the D&G Milan Runway, Despite Not Actually Attending

After its influencer-filled show for menswear, Dolce & Gabbana is back with another tactic, no doubt focused on bringing in millennial eyes. What is more effective at bringing in teenage girls than social media influencers? Justin Bieber. Welcome to the Italian brand’s latest scheme.

Though Bieber didn’t actually attend the D&G show, from the presence Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana created you would have thought he was going to pop out and perform at the end, grabbing the mic from Austin Mahone, who performed live. But no, the brand injected the singer into their latest presentation by proxy, using both his likeness and his music to get social media followers fired up.

First thing to notice: the soundtrack. Though Mahone performed as the models walked the runway, the music being played before the show started was punctuated by all of Bieber’s greatest hits. Yes, verified “Baby, baby, baby oooohhhh”-type tunes. And while that seemed to be abandoned once pieces started coming down the runway, there was more Bieber in store for the audience.

In a family focused lineup (the idea of the D&G family has been consistently harped on by the brand, which has accompanied models with pregnant mothers, toddlers, and young children), the models slowly filed down the runway. Sofia Richie (who along with Hailey Baldwin, also at the show, dated Bieber), blogger Aimee Song, Real Housewives daughter Delilah Belle Hamlin, singer Madison Beer, Steve Harvey’s daughter Amanda Harvey (plus her mother, later on), and twin singers Chloe x Halle, the Beyoncé proteges, all posed as models. There was even a last-minute addition: Jo Ellison, the fashion editor of the Financial Times, who was cast while doing a preshow interview with the designers.

But it was here, on the runway, that Bieber made his appearance. His face turned up printed on shirts, in a sense turning the line into merch. But there was more: on the backs of the tees, the brand made its adoration clear. “We Love Justin Beiber,” they proclaimed. We all knew subtle wasn’t D&G’s style.

Like many other tactics the brand employs, all of these — the casting as well as the Beiber motifs — were no doubt plays for attention. And though it can get quite overbearing, one has to wonder whether it does eventually turn into sales.

While we are sure that cutesy, fun bags that are a product of this — such as the one that says “All I Need Is Love and Wi-Fi” — sell well, what about those ornate crowns? One thing we do know it turns into? Articles like this.

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