Costume design, art direction, music and culture converged on the regal runway on Tuesday afternoon for Dolce & Gabbana’s 2025 Alta Sartoria show. The collection was shown at Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo. Also known as Mausoleum of Hadrian, the towering rotunda was initially commissioned for the Roman Emperor and his family, and was later adopted as a safe haven by the popes and turned into a fortress. Over the years, the favoured Italian designers have become known for their references to Catholic imagery. With the recent election of a new Pope, ecclesiastic aesthetics have been ever present in the media. Interest in Catholic ideation was solidified after the release of Conclave dominated the box office last year and Flea Bag’s Hot Priest took over the internet. The decision to begin the show with a solemn procession signified its ties to these cinematic references as well as the designer’s devoted commitment to traditional Italian rituals and celebrations. Dolce & Gabbana’s meticulous attention to detail and references to their Catholic upbringing were highlighted in the plethora of ceremonial robes and Byzantine influences that were seen throughout the collection.
Each design in the Alta Sartoria collection tells a story of artisanal craftsmanship. Beaded bodices were intricately embedded with crosses followed by heavily embellished ceremonial robes inspired by ecclesiastical vestments and Sicilian baroque aesthetic. Multiple white tees featured three-dimensional busts of a statue head emerging from the fabric like a surrealist centerpiece. Fashion, art and history met on the canvas of robes as the designs depicted priests situated alongside regal silhouettes. The Catholic visuals were used as symbolism for temptation, guilt and forbidden intimacy. Processions, iconography, silence and reverence all mirror the emotional weight of mass. This metaphorical symbolism allowed the runway to become a reliquary of devotion: beaded bodices bearing crucifixes, priestly silhouettes reworked in velvet and gold, and sculptural garments that felt more chapel than catwalk. In such a modern and fragmented world, culture and community can often feel lost. A developed collective yearning for connection has led us to turn to more traditional outlets to find belonging. Catholic aesthetics and ideation provide an outlet for meaning in an otherwise destabilized world.
In today’s multidisciplinary creative landscape, film and fashion continuously influence and inspire each other. The resurgence of Catholic imagery in recent media can be attributed to several converging cultural, aesthetic and emotional undertonnes. In recent years, Catholic symbolism has quietly crept back into mainstream media through cinema and couture. Films like The Two Popes, Fleabag, and Conclave have reimagined the Church as a vessel for mystery and decadence rather than a strictly spiritual institution. That same sacred energy took center stage at Dolce & Gabbana’s latest Alta Sartoria show in Rome. With the majority of fashion shows taking place in Milan, the decision to stage their show in Rome further reinforced the idea of Catholicism playing a pivotal role in shaping fashion narratives and highlighted Rome’s symbolic weight as a spiritual and stylistic backdrop.
References to recent popular cinematic works – Flea Bag’s Hot Priest sparking feverish chatter amongst viewers and the release of Edward Berger’s adaptation of the 2016 novel, Conclave – could be seen throughout the collection. The show opened with a solemn procession, winding through a hall of historic statues, as a soft classical melody drifted through the air – an homage to ancient Roman grandeur and a quiet nod to fashion as a modern ritual. We often see creative professionals borrowing language and techniques from different fields – blurring boundaries and enriching both industries. By embracing this multidisciplinary exchange, both film and fashion evolve as collaborative art forms, reflecting and shaping contemporary culture with a deeper connection to status and symbolism.
This interplay between cinematic storytelling and sartorial expression highlights how Catholic motifs serve as a shared language, enriching both mediums with layered meanings and emotional resonance. The convergence of fashion and film echoed a subtle nod to recent shifts in creative expression – one that encourages disciplines to inspire rather than compete with each other. Designers are directing films, filmmakers are curating runway shows, and brand campaigns now look like cinematic short stories – all pointing to a cultural moment that values collaboration over categorization. In this new landscape, storytelling is no longer confined to one medium. A dress can carry the weight of a cinematic moment and a film can be styled like a runway. This synthesis urges us to remember that in a multidisciplinary world, beauty lies in the seamless merging of forms, not in the absence of it.
