For Holiday 2026, Gordon von Steiner stages gold sequins, black tuxedos and leopard-print tea sets inside a hotel painted deep red.
Most holiday campaigns hand you a tree and a fireplace. The Dolce & Gabbana Holiday 2026 campaign hands you a room key. Photographed and directed by Gordon von Steiner, it moves into a fictional hotel soaked in deep crimson, then fills the lobby, the corridors and the bed linen with gold.
The gold is the point. Against walls the colour of a good Barolo, the house sends sequins, metallics and gilded yellow gowns through the frame, and the contrast does the work a string of fairy lights usually would.
Gold on red, in detail
The women’s looks lean on metallic finishes, sequins and serious accessories. In one image a model stretches across red satin bedding in a bronze-gold sequined slipdress, jeweled metallic pumps parked nearby, as though she has just kicked them off after the party. In another, two women stand in eveningwear: a draped gold dress, a chunky necklace, an embellished top-handle bag.
Grace Elizabeth, Lulu Tenney and Sacha Quenby are among the models. Elizabeth pairs an embellished dress with an ornate gold clutch. Quenby lounges in sequins and gold accessories. Tenney wears a shimmering long-sleeved minidress. The pose across most of it is horizontal, which gives the campaign its quiet joke: black-tie dressing, worn for lying down.
Hair is sculpted and lipstick is red, a nod to old-school Italian glamour. Fashion Gone Rogue pegs the lobby as having the polish of the 1950s, and the styling backs that up. Nobody here looks casually dressed, and nobody looks uncomfortable about it.
Tuxedos and a leopard-print tea set
Menswear plays the straight man, in the best sense. The palette stays black and white, with a three-piece tuxedo, satin lapels, a crisp white shirt and a black bow tie. It lets the gold have the stage.
Then comes the house signature. Leopard print runs through the accessories and, more charmingly, through the hotel itself: a delicate tea set, watch bands, a catchall tray and throw pillows. Dolce & Gabbana could have stopped at a handbag. Instead the animal print has moved into the furnishings, which is where the campaign’s sense of humour lives.
Still-life images by Matthieu Lavanchy focus on the objects alone. Among the pieces highlighted by retailer Luxferity are the Mini My Sicily handbag in Bordeaux laminated goatskin at $2,945, the Leo jacquard mules at $1,095 and a leopard-print silk twill scrunchie at $265. The My Sicily bag also gets its own moment in the brand’s social posts for the campaign.
A hotel with a plot
Von Steiner treats the lobby like a film set, and the accompanying film follows that logic. A woman in gold crosses the lobby. Guests take calls, stop at the front desk, pour tea and trade glances. The brand’s own framing talks of knowing glances, fleeting meetings and hidden kisses, with every gesture carrying a second meaning.
Spoiler warning: the film’s final turn is below.
Near the end, the camera pulls back. Lights, cameras and crew members come into view, and those private hotel moments turn out to have been performed for another camera. It is a neat bit of stagecraft for a fashion ad, and it explains why the red interiors look so deliberately theatrical. The campaign comes with five moving-image pieces, from short accessory clips to a main film of about 38 seconds.
Last year’s snow, this year’s velvet
Von Steiner also shot Dolce & Gabbana’s Holiday 2025 campaign, which went outdoors into snow and indoors into gatherings, with black and silver and 1960s-inspired brocade. The 2026 version swaps the chill for a heated, scarlet interior and swaps silver for gold. Same photographer, opposite temperature.
The clothes are already on the move. On October 21, Dolce & Gabbana and Mytheresa launched the second chapter of their exclusive holiday capsule, part of a partnership that has produced more than 10 collections since 2017. This round centres on occasionwear: sculptural minidresses, floor-length gowns, voluminous skirts, sequins, metallic accents and embellished shoes and accessories. The campaign pieces and the Mytheresa capsule are available online and in boutiques worldwide.
Gold has always been a safe bet for December. What this campaign adds is the setting: a room so red that every sequin looks lit from within, and a cast that dresses for the evening and then, gloriously, stays in.
Via Style Rave