With FW22 Collection, Dolce & Gabbana pays homage to music and metaverse.

Dolce & Gabbana presented another stellar runway show for its fall/winter 2022 menswear collection. For this season, the design duo took inspiration from Generation Z: exaggerated self-portrayal styling, oversized raver-style hoodies, as well as tailored suits in shiny metallic gold and silver and graffiti prints.

This runway show, which is actually the first one of the year, was a great show. Not only was it in fashion, but also in music. The special guest was the rapper Machine Gun Kelly, who was also the main model of the collection.

Machine Gun Kelly opened the Dolce & Gabbana show in a white suit framed in big, spiky studs.

At the press conference before the show, Dolce and Gabbana raved about the artist, praising his talent and “his taste for beauty and his appreciation for sartorial elegance.” They rightly believe that understanding the zeitgeist is a priority and that tailoring their practice according to a new set of rules is what makes their work pertinent for today—and also exciting for them from a creative standpoint: “We’re challenging ourselves,” said Gabbana. “We’re questioning everything we’ve been used to. Things are changing, and we welcome that change; we want to experience the new, which makes us evolve and move forward.” Dolce chimed in: “Staying put in our comfort zone feels not-so-comfortable anymore.”

Brooding, pierced and ghostly, he did a spin on the runway before he pressed play on a DJ mixer and disappeared, only to reemerge in a swirly, multi-coloured sequined suit for a live performance of “My Ex’s Best Friend”. But Kelly – newly engaged to Megan Fox – wasn’t just the show singer. His dress sense – inspired by an idiosyncratic musical style, which, according to the designers, “mixes the logic of rap with punk, emo and alternative music” – partly informed a megaphonic collection devoted to the generations who follow him.

The collection featured mostly oversized, including sweaters, sweatshirts, coats, pants, shorts as well as high-necked shirts and tailored blazers in metallic, leather and teddy (studded) textures.

Moreover, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana exploded their silhouettes into enormous proportions. From tracksuits to biker jackets and tuxedos, the dimensions reached circumferences that would have made Leigh Bowery blush. Whether jackets were blown up, the shoulder was the erogenous zone: deconstructed, demanding and daring.