The evidence makes an unsure backdrop to possible future fashion presentations. Theoretically, the New York shows start the Spring/Summer 2021 season this week. Yet the big names have mostly been cancelled, because the designers have decided to present digitally or push forward shows to November. 

The tentative London calendar also offers mainly online presentations. Milan and Paris have, so far, a mix of live with Zoom digital presentations.

Yet Florence proved that some shows can go on. Dolce & Gabbana, with the support of the city of Florence and 38 artisans working their magic in materials from silver to straw, put on a three-day live event. Each part of Alta Moda and Alta Sartoria, their version of couture, was also presented online in full, giving it worldwide reach. 

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana spoke of a “homage to craftsmanship and Florentine workshops that pass down knowledge and tradition from generation to generation, keeping a priceless value alive: the Fatto a Mano (handmade)”. 

Stefano added his passion for “art, history, culture, craftsmanship and bellezza – beauty”.

Behind what seemed to be an impossible feat in the time of Covid was Raffaello Napoleone, the Chief Executive of the Florence fashion trade shows, Pitti Immagine and Pitti Uomo, for more than 30 years. 

This international menswear community had already been offering its shows online to a global audience since the millennium. This season, the team at Pitti had to find a solution to presenting their events, which historically take place in June. They rescheduled for this September and also launched Pitti Connect, a digital platform on which buyers and trade members can meet, exhibit and view. Next season, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will be integrated on to the platform.

And even if this season only solicited orders online, the Dolce & Gabbana events, including a museum display of their handwork, revived fashion reality. 

The men’s show kicked off with actress Monica Bellucci receiving the keys to the City of Florence from Mayor Dario Nardella at the Palazzo Vecchio. 

The historic skills used for tailored and (relatively) casual menswear came through as more original than the women’s presentation. That second-day show seemed to have taken inspiration from a ladylike past – a glance back to 1951, when the first Florentine fashion events were launched in the city.

Stefano and Domenico looked like they were focusing on the artistry experienced when Italy emerged from the destruction of the Second World War. The swaying hats, with their feather and fruit decoration, had the effect of giant blooms growing from the crown. Even without the headdresses, the clothes were not exactly low-key, with their floral embroideries and scenes of Tuscany painted on long-skirted dresses. The ultimate dress, which looked like a sculpture of golden feathers swaddling the body, was displayed on a model walking down a flight of stone stairs that served as a runway at the 17^th-century Villa Bardini.

Raffaello Napoleone explained the background to bringing the Dolce & Gabbana annual shows to Florence for private clients. “We started speaking to Domenico and Stefano two and a half years ago, thinking about the men’s couture,” Napoleone said. “They always do something in Portofino, in Naples, in Como, in Palermo, and we thought that ltalian fashion was born in Florence. In my idea, it would be during Pitti Uomo. The answer came with the form Dolce & Gabbana always did: men, women, and jewellery. The idea was to do everything in June, 2020. Then Covid happened. We tried to move Pitti Uomo to September.”

The designers said that they wanted to stick with the plan, but collaborating with “the root of fashion in Florence, which is 90% linked with artisans”. “This is the real vision that launched Italian fashion – in fact launched by Florence – in the Fifties,” they explained. “And so, we don’t want to arrive with our knowledge and the weight of our brand … We offer our brand to promote the iconic product of each artisan, to be seen in this difficult moment, thanks to our social media and communications. At the end of June, we met around 50 artisans and during July and August they did some specific production.” 

“The idea was really a promotion,” Napoleone continued. “The title of the collections this season, ‘Renaissance and Rebirth’, is – and I believe this is the truth – through this kind of uniqueness. It’s an identity.”

Is it viable to imagine a 21^st-century Renaissance as an absolute counterpoint to “fast fashion”? That mighty product has tainted the industry, bringing misery to the suppliers and makers of super-cheap clothing and even harming Nature, with particles of denim soiling rivers and encouraging the melting of the polar ice caps as just one example of their pollution.

When asked to elaborate on his aim to redirect Italian fashion in the future, Napoleone said he was focussing on “unique products challenging the mass market”. 

This focus is not only on artisans from the fashion industry, but also the specialist food industry – Napoleone was involved in launching Pitti Taste, the Florence food festival, 15 years ago. When it started, it was “completely different from the big food trade shows, where they usually look for huge producers”, he explained. “When we started Taste, 40 exhibitors were small producers of one cheese that is made in a specific place, with a specific taste, unique. We look today for uniqueness. Something that you can find just in this moment in that region.”

Overall, Napoleone is bullish about Italy’s bounceback. “You have to do what you can do as you have never done the past … I am very confident. I trust and believe in our country a lot. We did many good things in the past after a crisis, and this will be another obstacle to jump but I think that entrepreneurs will be able to react.”