At Milan Fashion Week last Sunday (February 25), Dolce & Gabbana stunned the crowd attentively watching the show when they replaced the models striding on the runway with airplanes—tiny unmanned drones.
The Italian luxury brand activated a series of drones (quadcopters), controlling them to fly out onto the catwalk and introduce its latest designs.
About seven drones raced along the runway, each carrying Dolce & Gabbana handbags hovering below. This handbag collection is named “Devotion” with a heart-shaped design, making a solid impression on the audience.
However, things don’t always go smoothly. In fact, with the warm-up performance nearly an hour later than expected, the audience lost patience while waiting for this new surprise from D&G.
It seems to involve asking viewers to turn off Wi-Fi on their phones during the show to reduce the risk of interference affecting the drones’ paths.
“During today’s show, company staff made announcements in many different languages asking the audience to turn off their Wi-Fi and network connections,” said a Fashionista who attended the event. Once D&G is satisfied with the safety of the airspace of these unique “models,” they will begin departure.
Some D&G employees are assigned to stand in many places on the show floor to be ready to respond to any unexpected situations that pose a danger to viewers.
But fortunately, there were no reports of any such disaster, and the unmanned “vedettes” completed their mission.
Technology, or more specifically, drones, are no longer outside the realm of fashion; they open up a new direction for product introductions instead of simple performances of models.
However, the fact that the performance using this new technology was a bit chaotic and delayed shows that the robot revolution on the catwalk may still need a little more time to “adapt” to the fashion industry. But what D&G has done has affirmed the brand’s statement of uniqueness and strength in every step.
