Dolce & Gabbana s/s 2013 - Sicilian Sunshine on the Milanese Runway

I recently finished reading this book, The Leopard, by Tomasi Giuseppe di Lampedusa, and it turned out to be one of the most worthwhile things I have read for months. It chronicles the life of a Sicilian nobleman during the steady decline of the aristocracy in the late 19th century, and is a beautifully written historical novel. But although this book is attractive for its elegant prose and clever characterisation, it was a more prosaic quality which appealed to me...

 It made me feel warm.

As you can probably appreciate, feeling warm is a primary concern, at all times, for anyone living in Edinburgh. Complete strangers can happily bond over shared disgust at the climate, and 'Ooh, it's cold out' is a widely accepted substitute for 'Hello', all year round.

The author, Lampedusa.

But this book, somehow, did the impossible and made me feel as though, just outside my door, there would be rolling waves of dusty Southern Italian heat waiting to greet me instead of rain. Lampedusa manages this with fantastically vivid descriptions of Sicilian fields and gardens, and I will always be grateful to him for lending some sunshine to my Scottish autumn.

But despite the pervasive warmth of of Lampedusa's prose, when I got to the bottom of the final page, Scotland began to feel chilly again. So it was with much glee that I came across another Sicilian export only a few days later, that once again brought sunshine in its wake.

This came in the form of Dolce and Gabbana's s/s 2013 runway show for Milan Fashion Week. For this collection, the duo went back to Domenico Dolce's Sicilian roots to create something inspired by Sicily's cultural heritage and 50's-style beach holidays. This all came together in a brightly playful and, more importantly, warm expression of what the designers have been sacrificing in place of blunt sex-appeal for the past few seasons.

Instead of tiny-yet-bland bikinis, here we saw vintage-pin-up style beachwear in candy stripes and tropical patterns. Cute, but still elegant and sexy, which is a genuine achievement.

Some of my favourite looks from the show, here worn by Cara Delevingne, were the Sicilian folkloric costumes reproduced in stiff cotton and silks. The semi-puffed sleeves with the wide fringed belt give a great silhouette and the whole thing is finished off with a demure little headscarf. Also, your attention needs to be drawn to the fantastic, five-inch creations hanging from Delevingne's ears. They are colourful and eccentric, and they please me enormously.

I managed to find this backstage shot of the accessories table from the show and I love how mad everything looks (particularly the head band in the top left corner) when put out next to each other. The trend for big, fun accessories isn't unique to D&G, similarly exciting earrings have been appearing everywhere, including the s/s 2013 collection by Indian designer Rajdeep Ranawat, but I think this photo confirms that D&G do it best.

Burlap shift dresses picked out in coloured brocades also featured, and I like the contrast between the provincial hessian sack look and the luxurious lace work.

Unfortunately, there aren't any close up pictures of the design on these dresses, and although the flower mesh shirt is very beautiful in its own right, the key bit of this outfit which I want to point out is the photo-print skirt. Essentially it is a very detailed print of a historical cavalry scene on silk, but it catches my eye because it is so similar to Sicilian ceramics, like this tile inlay, below. 

This, for me, embodies the attraction of the collection: it works closely with the visual elements of Sicily's heritage but manages to stay as polished and refined as you would expect from the designers.

I'm going to finish with the shoes, mostly because I like shoes, but also because these particular shoes symbolise something important. 

Firstly, I have had a lot of discussions with people about why I like fashion, and couture in particular. The criticism which I field the most is that that high fashion is, at best, impractical, and at worst, ridiculous, even if it is mostly 'very pretty'. I reckon that the above pair of shoes illustrates the other side's argument perfectly: they are beautiful but would clash with almost everything you own, would be  nightmarish to walk in and are likely to cost in excess of £800. 

However, these shoes, and in fact this whole collection, also embody everything that draws me to the world of fashion. Everything is aesthetically lovely, but looking at the pieces doesn't make me want to buy them and wear them to school, it makes me want to imitate the feeling of the collection, and inject some colour and eccentricity into my wardrobe.

This, to me, is the whole point of fashion. It inspires you to try new things and explore how what you wear can make you feel, and, to all those who think this is a shallow sentiment - 

it's quite easy to feel warm on the inside when there is colour and warmth on the outside. 

Even in Scotland.