Dolce & Gabbana & iPad: Apple’s fashionable tablet helps chronicle brand’s 20 years in menswear

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Since it was conducted in Italian with no English translation, I couldn’t understand a word of the Friday press conference that included Milan Mayor Letizia Moratti, Giovanni Terzi, who is the head counselor for fashion for the City of Milan, and fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana that took place at the Palazzo Marino in advance of Saturday’s party celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dolce & Gabbana’s menswear collection.

But when it came time to preview the multimedia exhibit -- which will be open to the public only through Sunday (‘This building is Milan’s city hall -- people have to come to work here Monday,’ a press representative explained), no translator was need to understand that Apple’s barely months-old iPad is already being fiendishly fetishized by the fashion flock.

The first part of the exhibit includes a total of 28 of the sleek, black, tablet computers mounted on three transparent walls, which made them appear to almost float in the air. Each iPad displayed images from a new book ’20 Years of Dolce & Gabbana for Men’ that could be scrolled through by drawing a hand across the touch screen.

Culled from ad campaigns, editorial shoots and red carpet events, the celeb-heavy images include the likes of Mick Jagger, Josh Brolin, Neil Patrick Harris, and Kanye West (in a Superman T-shirt), to name a few.

In a particularly meta moment, a journalist whipped out her iPhone to take a photo of an iPad displaying a photo of Domenico Dolce perched on the shoulders of -- and pouring Champagne into the mouth of -- Stefano Gabbana, while the real deal stood just a few feet away.

According to the press folks at Dolce & Gabbana, Saturday night’s fashion fete on the famed Piazza della Scala is expected to draw the flesh-and-blood versions of such bold-faced names as Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Juliette Binoche, Eva Herzigova and Chace Crawford.

And the celebrity of the iPad -- which is already in the house.

Make that palazzo.

-- Adam Tschorn, reporting from Milan, Italy

Photos: Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring / Summer 2011 Menswear Runway

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