Elvis has left the runway: An audience with Kylie and D&G

Backstage after Thursday's scintillating Dolce e Gabbana show. And I do mean scintillating, with a finale of one-armed, Lesage-sequinned catsuits and jumpsuits. I should note that the most amusing aspect of this finale was not the outfits themselves, which seemed more than a little Elvis-meets-Coogi but rather, the performances of the models who had all apparently been briefed to wave one arm up and down in a kind of interpretative dance movement - designed, presumably, to best highlight the unisleeves. Twyla Tharp, it wasn't.

After the show wrapped, a posse of journalists was ushered downstairs at the Metropol Theatre. That's the space that has been purchased by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana as a show venue. Several other big Italian names such as Prada, Armani and latterly Versace, have purchased similar. According to the Dolce e Gabbana publicist the Metropol was built in the 1940s and Maria Callas used to rehearse there.

We were taken into a black anteroom, replete with black Louis XIV-style chairs, a behemoth black and white Murano glass chandelier that took up most of the space between the central table and the ceiling, mirrored cabinetry and two large vases of perfect cream roses.

Behind the black velvet curtains was another blackened room where Kylie, Dolce and Gabbana were sitting. I went in first to speak to the trio alone briefly, but after a few minutes - without a sound - some other journalists crept in behind me. Apologies for the confusion, but this is an amalgam of questions, just over half of them mine:

[to Kylie] SO THIS IS YOUR FIRST FASHION SHOW FOR QUITE SOME TIME... HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING BACK IN THE BOSOM OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY?
[Laughs] Mmmmmm, good. Yeah it's good, it's exciting. I love a show where I don't have any pressure. We were waiting here before the show and I was thinking, 'What is happening with the boys right now?' Final minute fussing and all of that. But Dolce e Gabbana never fail to deliver.

[to Dolce and Gabbana] WAS THERE A BIT OF KYLIE MINOGUE IN THAT SHOW? THERE WAS A BIT OF KYLIE, I THOUGHT, AND IN FACT A BIT OF ELVIS. I THOUGHT THERE WAS MORE THAN A BIT OF ELVIS PRESLEY.
Dolce: [Alarmed] No there is more Kylie, not Elvis.

I'M SORRY, YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THERE WAS A BIT OF ELVIS.
Dolce: No there was not. It's too sexy and too glamorous for... I don't know, Elvis was a... cowboy.

Kylie: In the 70s when he was doing that, he was probably sexy. Like me.

Gabbana: The inspiration is we think about a new shape of woman. So for a long time we see the woman and the girl really skinny and really tall and we say, 'OK this is the new shape of body because it's not anorexic'. So the girl is like that... But why don't we give this woman the possibility for play with the shape, so you wear something to have the breasts bigger, the hips bigger, why not?

Dolce: This is the life, you know. This is real life.

Gabbana: The real woman's shape is this one.

Kylie: [to Dolce e Gabbana] Can we preorder the shape that we want? You have your office shape, and your evening shape...

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO BE ORDERING FROM THAT COLLECTION FOR YOUR SHOW AND FOR YOURSELF?
Well for the show... these kind gentlemen are designing three outfits especially for me, as it were. And I'd love to share the details but we can't.

SO, SIMILAR TO WHAT WE'VE SEEN BEFORE?
Gabbana: It's Dolce e Gabbana for Kylie.

Kylie: No it's different. But I'm very inspired by the dazzling garments wafting their way down the catwalk.

WHAT ABOUT THE ONE-ARMED GARMENT?
I can see the one-armed.... [gestures like one of the models, waving arm up and down]. See, I can't even control it.

I THOUGHT IT WAS A BIT GREEN FAIRY [character played by Minogue in Moulin Rouge], THAT OUTFIT.
There was a moment, yeah.

SO WHY DO YOU GUYS LIKE WORKING TOGETHER?
Well not subtlety, is it? We've done lots of things together for red carpet, for events and things like that. But for stage it's something totally different. Aside from the pure mechanics of it, you have to get in and out really quickly, it has to survive 50 shows, make in different sizes...

Gabbana: You need to dance, to move, to move your ass.

THOSE MOULDED PLASTIC CORSETS AND BUSTIERS REMINDED ME OF THAT KYLIE BOT THAT YOU HAD IN THE FEVER SHOW - WHAT WAS IT CALLED?
Kylie: The Ky-borg.

[to Gabbana] WAS THAT PLASTIC?
Gabbana: PVC

AND WAS THAT A SATIN CORSET? IT ALMOST LOOKED LIKE STAINLESS STEEL.
Gabbana: Yes.

IT LOOKED LIKE MARC NEWSON'S LOCKHEED LOUNGE.
Kylie: It's nice and light.

SO CAN YOU EVER GO TOO FAR OVER THE TOP WHEN YOU ARE DOING SHOWGIRL COSTUMES? OR IS THERE NO SUCH THING?
Kylie: Hmmmmmm... there is possibly no such thing.

HAVE YOU EVER LOOKED AT AN OUTFIT THAT YOU WERE GOING TO PERFORM IN AND SAID TO YOURSELF, 'KYLIE, THIS IS TOO MUCH'?
Kylie: Yeah but then my stylist normally harrasses me into wearing it. And he's right. I just have a shy moment, and I think.... even the Silver Nemesis from Fever...

Gabbana: Oh yeah, I remember the miniskirt.

Kylie: The miniskirt and diamante bra. The first time I tried it on with these guys and said, [whispers] 'I can't wear that on stage'. And they said, 'Yes of course you can'.

YOU HAVE STARTED REHEARSING NOW, HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH ALL THE PRESSURE OF REHEARSALS?
Kylie: I've had T-shirts made up for myself and all the crew which says, 'Kylie says relax'. Just a little reminder. I'm trying to remind myself that this is what I do and I don't have the words to tell you in this brief amount of time to how incredible it is to have this opportunity again.

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE TOUR?
Yeah, and we've got work to do, us three. So look out for the...

ARE YOU WORKING TODAY?
We've got a dinner tonight. Perhaps I'll wear something from the show.

SO WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE FROM THE SHOW?
Mmmm... There was a long purple dress with a low back, Bedazzled, that I really liked.


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