2024-04-28 15:44:45
Ms. Müller, you are a fashion historian and have already brought many brands to the museum. Now you have collaborated with Dolce & Gabbana. The exhibition “From the Heart to the Hands” runs in Milan until the end of July. Why should you watch the show?
I have often worked with French designers and held exhibitions about their haute couture and haute couture knowledge in France. And Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have tried to do the same in Italy with their house. I think few people realize how much knowledge can be found in each region of the country. Most people take this for granted. They say: Italy, beautiful country! The history! Painting and sculpture! The design! But no one thinks that these pillars are based on all the people, on family businesses that pass on their craft over generations. This is more familiar from France. This exhibition aims to show how the vision of two fashion designers is realized using craftsmanship.
Do you have an example?
Anyone who thinks up a chain in the shape of a chandelier cannot rely on the industrial part of the world. He needs the craft. Or one of Dolce & Gabbana’s last collections was dedicated to Puglia, and they transferred the techniques used to make lace tablecloths or curtains to dresses. This is another way to keep old techniques fresh.
What have you learned about Italy yourself?
With their work, Domenico and Stefano have toured Italy over the years, similar to how the aristocrats went on grand tours in the 18th and 19th centuries. On this journey, Dolce & Gabbana have repeatedly made local references and incorporated them into their collections.
Curator Florence Müller, born in 1957, was born and raised in Paris. Müller studied art history and came to fashion through his first job at the Musée des Arts décoratifs.action press
The two spent a long time in Sicily doing their work. Have you taken this into particular consideration?
Yes, of course, Sicily will be important in the exhibition. But it will also be about the glass art from Venice and the mosaics from Ravenna.
What did you learn about the Italians while working?
I learned that family is very important. Unfortunately, we have lost sight of this a bit in France. The Italians have preserved this, this collaboration within the family in the name of the founder. There is a difference whether you are part of a family business or an employee of a company. You tend to put in a different level of work and love because you’re part of a tradition. Domenico and Stefano work a lot with their relatives, and the same goes for the artisans. These family connections give Italians an awareness of their ancestors and they place themselves at their service. This is extraordinary in our world where people are often selfish. You have to do your best because your ancestors have already done that.
That sounds stressful too.
The topic is also close to me because Italian art was, in a sense, my first passion. I was seven years old when I asked for a book about primitivism for Christmas. I can prove this: I still have that book with the date in my library. My uncle – my mother’s brother – introduced me to it. He was the director of the Musée Carnavalet, the museum about the history of Paris. My uncle knew everything about art and often took me to museums.
You later studied art history and then started working at the Musée des Arts décoratifs. You need to know: In the 1980s, the Italians conquered big fashion. How did that happen back then?
There are several explanations for this: Fashion was French in pre-war times, everyone went to Paris to copy. After World War II, the world changed, Americans brought their culture to Europe, people started traveling and discovering great things in other places too. This also included fashion in Italy. This is how it started, initially quite discreetly, in the 1950s and 1960s. Of course the French didn’t like it that much. But the employees of the Paris Fashion Chamber also noticed that the world had changed. So Italians could show off in Paris. But new things also developed in other places: in the Netherlands and Belgium, in Germany.
And in Italy, after a certain period of development, fashion was able to flourish particularly in the 1980s because there was a large pool of craftsmanship there?
Exactly, you could even say: How unfair that Italy wasn’t noticed earlier. The Italians have this craft. And they have a sense of elegance. The dolce vita that became established in the summers of the fifties, sixties and seventies. Italy is still a theater today, an everyday street theater. And Domenico and Stefano are great observers of this spectacle.
The exhibition “From the Heart to the Hands – Dolce & Gabbana” can be seen at the Palazzo Reale in Milan until July 31st.
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