hen Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana first discussed celebrating their Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria and Alta Gioielleria collections—the pinnacle of the body of work they've been building for four decades—an exhibition with a didactic parade of clothed mannequins wasn't even an option, Gabbana says. “It's not who we are.” Instead, they concocted an immersive takeover of Milan's Palazzo Reale, transforming it into a series of tableaux of almost operatic extravagance rooted in of Italian culture as translated by artisans into exceptional , or handcrafted, pieces.
