Dolce & Gabbana Celebrate 20 Years

Scenes of hysteria bordering on the violent took place outside a seemingly dingy theatre in Milan's city centre yesterday. Self-consciously well-dressed men and women, plus the occasional British celebrity, shrieked, pushed and even sobbed as they tried to get through the theatre's front door, only to be pushed back by security so heavy handed that several people came away with pronounced limps and bruises.

Dolce & Gabbana's 20th anniversary show was always going to be an eventful affair. The Italian duo are arguably Italy's most beloved native designers, their "molto sexy" style reflecting the preferred look of the country's natives far better than Armani's sleekness or Prada's quirkiness ever do.

Quite how everyone else feels about it tends to depend on how overtly sexy you like your clothes. If body clinging underwear-as-outerwear is your preference and you believe there is no such thing as too much animal print, than Dolce & Gabbana is for you. If you just want to blend in, go to Gap.

It is a look that has proved lucrative for its makers. Last year's turnover was a healthy £597m, an impressive total for a company that started out on less than £2,000, and for one that has remained independent in an industry now dominated by conglomerates.

Oddly, though, the collection was an unexpected break from their well-beloved style. It was more akin to that of John Galliano, with references to an 18th-century French style.

The show began with a sentimental retrospective film of the designers' career, although the solemn music overlaying the black and white shots of the models (including a sweetly fresh-faced Kate Moss) occasionally gave the proceedings a somewhat morbid tone, as if the designers had died and this was their wake.

But things got merrily on their way, with a selection of siren red dresses followed by the usual collection of corsets and bras. The floral segment was the prettiest, with a silk coat embroidered with poppies tied loosely over starchy petticoats.

This was then followed by models flouncing down the runway in enormous ball dresses of the sort usually seen in costume dramas.

But if the clothes were a bit of a break from the Dolce & Gabbana norm, the front row definitely was not. The formula one driver Jenson Button and the pop star Lee Ryan sat in the premier seats, gazing up at the models with expressions best described as appreciative. Nearby, Elizabeth Hurley stared intently up at each new frock. And when the designers themselves came out to take a break to the strains of Barry White, all seemed back to normal in the Dolce & Gabbana empire.