A Fairytale Fantasy at Dolce & Gabbana

From all the photos Stefano Gabbana was furiously uploading to his Instragram account yesterday, we knew the Dolce & Gabbana autumn/winter 2016 collection would feature an element of Disney princess fantasy. From the fairy godmother turning Cinderella into a beautiful princess, and Snow White whistling away, to Ariel swimming around with Flounder under the sea, it was clear that princess would be a huge inspiration behind this upcoming collection. And, as expected it was.

Set on a black and white check catwalk, with a life size silver coach awaiting the arrival of a glittering Cinderella, this show was fantastical in every sense of the word. What I love about Dolce is that they don't follow trends as such, but instead do whatever it is they want to do. Models all had beautiful ribbons, trinkets and jewels in their hair, either embellished onto caps with feathers or weaved into individual strands. White lapels were used on matador jackets with silver military frogging, black was a key colour coming in trouser suits and shifts with little brooches on the collar while their classic, sexy black dresses were given a princess makeover with embroidery work down the sides. Most of the trousers were cropped, interesting for autumn/winter, as were the dresses with plenty of mini dresses taking centre stage and baring plenty of leg.

Knitwear as used in bold bursts of colour, floral designs were stitched onto delicate lace dresses and there was even a metallic dress with lots of individual shards of glass glistening in the lights - mirror, mirror indeed! Large florals of lilies and other pretty flowers descended across elegant dresses, red and gold brocade looked like they had come out of Prince Charming's wardrobe, worn with white trainers and puffy Snow White sleeves looked magical on a sheer white midi dress, complete with an oversized Peter Pan neck collar. It was nice to have simple black tone down all the amazing bursts of colour, as when including the catwalk into the mix, there were prints almost everywhere you looked.

Towards the end of the show, models walked out in striking glistening dresses covered in sparkly jewels, with the model closing the show wearing a coat of red roses over a black lace midi dress. And then came the moment we were all waiting for... the epic finale! All the models strode out wearing striking pink garments, all covered in crystals and dripping in expensive jewels. When all seen together it looked like a shimmery sea of glitter and was truly sublime. Really amazing. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana than made their well deserved bows, making sure this fairy tale finished with a happy ending.