Dolce & Gabbana creates bespoke doll for children’s charity

Italian fashion label Dolce & Gabbana is offering support to children tackling severe illness by playing dress up.

As part of the Italian Doll Convention’s fundraiser for Dynamo Camp’s 2016 season, creative directors Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have lent their design skills to a fashion-forward doll, creating a special-edition that is currently being auctioned on eBay. Fashion brands frequently elevate childhood items through design and label name to help nonprofits raise needed funds.

Dolled up
The Italian Doll Convention’s online auction began on April 25. The seven-day bidding began at one euro, giving a wide range of consumers the opportunity to participate.

Dolce & Gabbana’s doll has a hand-painted face and is dressed in a bespoke red lace dress designed to resemble Spanish attire. On her head is a tiara, and she also wears large jeweled earrings, all reminiscent of Dolce & Gabbana runway looks.

The doll is situated in a plastic box decorated with Sicilian motifs, including painted fruits and flowers and signed by the designers. Further making it a fashion piece is a handle atop the box, turning it into both a display case and a handbag.

Dolce & Gabbana for the Italian Doll Convention

In its sixth year, the Italian Doll Convention will be held in Milan on May 7-8, giving collectors the opportunity to share their passions with likeminded individuals. The convention has raised 70,000 euro, or about $79,000, through its charity efforts throughout its first five years.

This year, it chose Dynamo Camp as its beneficiary. The nonprofit runs a recreational therapy camp in Italy for children aged 6 to 17 battling serious and chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and various neurological disorders.

The camp offers accommodations to children free-of-charge, but a week costs the charity 2,000 euro per kid due to the staff needed to provide 24-hour care. Funds from this initiative will go toward helping more children attend this summer.

Dolce & Gabbana's eBay auction can be viewed here.

This is not the first time Dolce & Gabbana has designed for small, inanimate models.

In 2014, the house continued its support of UNICEF’s work with children in need in the Darfur region of Sudan.

For the third year, Dolce & Gabbana and other fashion houses, such as Christian Dior and Chanel, joined UNICEF for the Frimousses de Creatures project to raise funds for the children of the Darfur. Each year the brands work to create a doll that aligns with a specific theme, which is then auctioned off to benefit UNICEF (see story).