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In Milan, Fashion Marches to a Flamenco Beat

Carmen-inspired flamenco fashions never go out of style.
By Laird Borrelli-Persson

Today in Milan, Dolce & Gabbana danced to a Latin beat for spring, taking inspiration from traditional Spanish dress for both men and women. Mixed in among the embellished matador jackets and capes were flirty flamenco flounces and fringes for latter-day Carmens. Here, the look, now and then: on the runway, in art, and worn by stars like Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, and Nicole Kidman.

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    Photo: © The Gallery Collection/Corbis
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    The Spanish Dancer, a study for El Jaleo, 1882, by John Singer Sargent

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    Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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    Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova, circa 1925

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    Photo: Paramount/Getty Images
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    Marlene Dietrich in The Devil Is a Woman, 1935

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    Photo: Everett Collection
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    Rita Hayworth in The Loves of Carmen, 1948

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    Photo: Pool ARNAL/GERAL/PICOT/Gamma-Rapho/ Getty Images
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    Nicole Kidman, 1996

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    Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigitalimages.com
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    Dolce & Gabbana, spring 2015

Christian Lacroix is Laird Borrelli-Persson’s fashion raison d’etre; the way he combined romance and historicism set her on the path she is following today. Borrelli-Persson studied literature at Boston College, spending her junior year abroad at Oxford, where she added some art history. After graduation she moved to New York to intern ... Read More
TopicsDolce & GabbanaNicole Kidman