We are at number 3 via della Spiga, the undisputed epicentre of Milanese fashion. It is here that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have opened the world’s first boutique dedicated to D&G jewellery and watches. The result of a creative collaboration between the two designers and Eric Carlson of Carbondale architecture studio, the shop is a brilliant example of luxury retail.
As always in his projects, Carlson strives for exceptionality, which in his understanding of luxury architecture “begins and ends with the quality of materials and details, but also of ideas, reflection and service”. After completing the D&G flagship stores in Venice, Monte Carlo and Beijing, the Parisian studio tackled this first major jewellery boutique, the first of its kind. “In my work this means creating resonance and connections with individuals by making buildings, spaces and experiences that are uniquely theirs.”
The undisputed star of this retail project is intense black, a symbol of absolute elegance. The rigorous prospect of the façade of the prestigious building, overlooking the renowned shopping street, anticipates the linear geometries and colour palette that we will later find in the boutique’s interior, allowing a glimpse, through the transparency of the glass, of the heart of the shop.
In the interior, black is also a dominant element: four small, intimate rooms are clad in sumptuous Nero Marquina polished marble, alternating with black lacquered wood surfaces and large mirrors, generating plays of light and reflections. In this environment, completed by leather and velvet furnishings in the same colour, the D&G jewellery and watch creations stand out clearly, displayed inside cylindrical showcases made of black metal and glass.
“The Dolce&Gabbana jewellery and watches housed inside the new boutique tell a unique story, in which the best Italian goldsmith tradition dialogues with the technical excellence of the craftsmen and the creative force of the brand,” write the stylists. “The preciousness of the gems, the originality of the shapes, the extraordinary richness of the workmanship and the surprising chromatic harmonies make these creations an ode to beauty, art and love for savoir-faire”.
