Dolce & Gabanna’s SS/18 “Instagram influencer” Show

Dolce & Gabanna’s SS/18 “Instagram influencer” Show

Dolce & Gabanna’s star studded s/s 18 show was a catwalk full of Instagram “influencers” who were asked to walk because of their following power. Having a cult following has become an important tool for brands to get their products placed among the ranks of those who are truly living in the digital age. It’s sort of inevitable to be apart of at this point but with so much focus on that, what about the clothes? D&G’s show it appeared to be crafted from top materials but the garments themselves just looked super maximalist in a less than pleasant way. Everything was over printed, huge motifs (to match their models ego’s I suppose), bold patterns and colors thrown together that just looked like a spectacle (and not the good kind). I guess with so many designers opting out of traditional mediums of showcasing work whats left over at the bottom of the lunchbox on a hot day in June is this super unattractive stuff.

Before watching the show I was kind of interested to see what they were going to come up with as so many have been dousing their catwalks in androgyny, mixed raced models and sizes (both length and width wise). Midday through the show I felt as if i had been slipped a perc and was ready for bed. I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of looks, and they didn’t really look different from one another they shared in each others likeness and not in a cohesive way simply like they were just all slight variations on the same exact thing (like say, how Gucci borrowed the Dapper Dan coat..right). I was just super unimpressed and I didn’t actually recognize any of these so called “influencers” except 2, Luka Sabbat (millennial model) and Karlie Floss (twitter personality and stylist). And all of these people are “cool” I always felt like the word is subjective but the women on the runway are all in some type of lingerie and

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana veered way off their classic, Italian, sexy Dolce man and woman and not that abandoning that is wrong just this collection is wrong. It’s really exorbitant and excessive and not in that Alessandro for Gucci good way it’s just not interesting. But then again Dolce has never really been fashion or about intelligent garments. So from a marketing and advertising perspective maybe their reaching right where the should be and it’s quite smart to tap the young “cool” people who live on the internet.

Also, that whole Melania…#boycott D&G thing was just in bad taste. Again, another brand promoting their agenda (selling clothes) under the veil of political opinion and being on the wrong side of it (in my opinion).

Show Studio did a panel discussion on how millenials are engaging (or not) with the brand. Watch their video here.