D&G event in Florence gets done. With fee exemption for monumental environments

There will be no Dolce and Gabbana “super-vip dinner” in Florence ’s Piazza della Signoria: the banquet that would have closed Florence’s main square was scheduled for next September 2, but given the opposition of many (including our magazine) the City Council was forced to deny it, and did so last August 13 with an exit by the mayor’s spokesman, Dario Nardella. Only instead of dinner there will be a cocktail party, and the D&G event will be held, all right.

Everything is already organized as per the resolution of the council recorded last August 18. The event will be called “Il Rinascimento e la Rinascita - Alta Sartoria event” and will be promoted by the Pitti Immagine Discovery Foundation in collaboration with the Florence Center for Italian Fashion and Dolce & Gabbana. The City Council thinks it will be an event that will promote the local production system, craftsmanship and the enhancement of the area’s cultural heritage, and finds it in line with the administration’s strategic goals (including the enhancement of Florence as “excellence in the economy, craftsmanship, research and quality Made in Florence”), all at a particularly delicate time given that, the resolution reads, the restrictions to cope with the coronavirus emergency “have severely damaged the economic activities of the territory with profound and lasting consequences on the economy as a whole and in particular on the activities of ideational and creative handicrafts that, in addition to their intrinsic value, constitute the cultural and skills network necessary for the development of the major industrial production in the territory in the sectors of fashion creation, which have in Florence a major focal point for the entire system of made in Italy,” and that therefore the D&G event, according to the city administration, will also be an intervention aimed at restarting the city “from an economic, social and cultural point of view.”

There are then further premises. In fact, the Pitti Immagine Discovery Foundation pointed out that this is the first time “that a major international fashion brand has decided to present its collection organically associated with the Florentine High Craftsmanship, which, presented as a network of multiple excellences resulting from specific historical traditions, will be able to enjoy a’promotional and media exposure that would otherwise be difficult to obtain,” and stressed that D&G’s interventions “ will be the first, after the health emergency, to be held in Italy on a physical and not digital level, thus launching internationally a decisive message of courage, openness and security, functional to the revival of the city’s productive, tourist, and commercial activities.” Moreover, again the Foundation explains that “the event is not for direct profit.”

In short: an event that, according to the City Council, starts with the best auspices and, indeed, will have “great significance in relaunching the image and the ability to make system of the Florentine productive fabric.” So let’s see what will happen from September 2 to 4 (this is the period of the event). On Sept. 2, from 12 noon, there will be an exhibition of high jewelry at the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica in Santa Maria Novella, while some spaces of the monumental complex (the former infirmary, the former Carabinieri spaces, the small Dati cloister and the toilet) will become spaces for dressing waiters and production office. The Chiostro Grande of Santa Maria Novella (moreover, freshly restored!) will be the site of the light lunch for D&G guests, who will enjoy a special tour of the museum and the basilica of Santa Maria Novella from 12 to 3 pm.

From 7 p.m., the guests will move to Palazzo Vecchio where the event “Haute couture and Exhibition” is based. Palazzo Vecchio moreover closes to the public from August 24 to September 5: in between there are “normal” closing days, that is, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but there are also days that should be open on which the museum will instead close its doors, officially for “institutional reasons.” In any case, the arrival of guests at the Palazzo Vecchio will be greeted with flag-waving parade and cocktails after the parade, all in Piazza della Signoria. Another cocktail reception will be held in Michelozzo’s courtyard, with an exhibition attached, while the Cortile della Dogana will be occupied by the catering company that will prepare the cocktail served in Piazza della Signoria inside. From 7 p.m. to midnight, guest visit to the Palazzo Vecchio (Hall of Maps, Hall of Lilies, Hall of Audiences, Priori Chapel, Wardrobe Room, Penelope Room, Esther Room, Donna Sabina Room, Green Room, Chapel of Duchess Eleanor, Quarter of the Elements, Terrace of Saturn), with annexed further cocktail party before the fashion show, which will be held in the Salone dei Cinquecento on the same evening. The models, to dress up, will have the Hall of the Two Hundred at their disposal. For dinner, the guests will move to Palazzo Gondi: the banquet will be in the entrance courtyard, while the after-dinner will be held on the piano nobile, all starting at 10 p.m. and ending at 6 a.m.

It starts again on the 3rd, at 7 p.m., with a cocktail reception at Villa Bardini ’s Belvedere Terrace and another parade, in the Villa’s steps. The Limonaia and the Greenhouse will serve as backstage for makeup, hair and dressing, while D&G guests will feast in the Villa Bardini garden and the Terrazza del Belvedere. Finally, the floors of the villa will host the collections. Grand finale at Cantine Antinori on September 4 with the closing party.

Will D&G pay handsomely to occupy public spaces? Probably not: in fact, the resolution establishes the exemption from the payment of all fees for the concession of monumental environments since it is “an event made its own by the City Council by virtue of the close inherent nature of the same with the institutional functions of the Municipality.” In addition, the resolution also states, the City Council will discount by 50 percent the public land occupation fee due. At the moment, however, it is not yet known if and how Piazza della Signoria will be closed to the public.

D&G event in Florence gets done. With fee exemption for monumental environments

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