Fashion exhibitions have become big business in recent years. They not only serve as an opportunity for style fans to get an up-close look at stunning pieces they may have only seen from red-carpet photos, but also, they inspire curiosity about an eternal question: Is fashion art?
Dolce & Gabbana is the latest high-fashion house to address that proposition, producing a large-scale traveling exhibition, titled “From the Heart to the Hands.” To commemorate the house’s 40th anniversary, the exhibition debuted in Milan at the Palazzo Reale in 2024 before moving to Paris and Rome, with each event earning critical acclaim. The Associated Press called the Paris exhibition “not only a love letter to Italian craftsmanship, but to the interconnectedness of fashion.”
This month, on Feb. 6, the exhibition arrived in the U.S. at Miami’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) for a four-month stay. “From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana” explores the artistry of the iconic Italian label via more than 300 pieces that range from the earliest designs by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who founded their house in 1984, to recently released collections.
Interior of the In The Heart of Ancient Rome room.
Greg Kessler/Dolce & Gabbana
Throughout, what is clear about “From the Heart to the Hands” is the unabashed opulence that this pair of designers and their artisans apply to the vast majority of the house’s work. The duo’s inspiration—from Italian folklore, art, architecture, opera, cinema, religion, and the sheer beauty of their native country—shines through. From gowns richly crafted using gold thread to embellished Majolica prints that take their cue from the brightly hued Mediterranean tiles beloved by the designers, the exhibited pieces often are punctuated with bold color or are overtly lush in their beading and embroidery. And sometimes, they’re teeming with both, making them perfect for a museum exhibition.
For the first time since “From the Heart to the Hands” launched, visitors to the Miami exhibition can view the Alta Moda and Alta Sartoria collections Dolce & Gabbana unveiled in Rome in 2025. Alta Moda is the brand’s moniker for its haute-couture women’s line, while Alta Sartoria is the label’s made-to-measure men’s line.
With the move to ICA Miami, which recently underwent a multimillion dollar expansion, renowned fashion historian and curator Florence Müller chose to reshape the exhibition to both celebrate Rome and emphasize the new space. The overall result is a series of spaces that explore themes rooted in ecclesiastical pageantry, and the power that’s conveyed through the clothing and visual arts of a monarch or empire. Enhancing these pieces is a selection of works by contemporary artists that include digital storyteller Felice Limosani, French art collective Obvious, and London-based digital artist Vittorio Bonapace.
Exterior of the Miami exhibition.
Greg Kessler/Dolce & Gabbana
Müller is an author of more than 40 books and a former professor of the French Institute of Fashion’s Culture of Fashion program. Her past curations include some of the most widely attended fashion exhibitions in recent memory, including “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective” at Le Petit Palais in Paris, and the wildly popular “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams,” which premiered in 2017 in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, adjacent to the Musée du Louvre.
The sheer richness of the fashion, meanwhile, compels viewers to step up closely to admire the artistry of the stitches and richness of the embroideries, and that’s precisely the point, because ultimately this is a celebration of the art of Italian handcraft. That point also was emphasized during the exhibition’s premiere in Paris, the revered birthplace of French haute couture; as Müller put it succinctly to the Associated Press at the time: “Yes, Italy does it, too.”
“From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana” runs through June 14 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, 23 N.E. 41st St., Miami. Tickets with timed entries range from $16 for children age 4 through 11, to $30 for adults age 18 and over.