Irina Shayk has opened the archive closet at the 2026 Venice Film Festival. The model arrived on the Lido to receive the Filming Italy Venice International Award and, for The Echo Chamber red carpet, she brought back a spring-summer 2003 archive dress from Dolce & Gabbana that Gisele Bündchen wore on the runway 23 years ago. The choice couldn’t be more meaningful: it’s a vintage bondage-inspired piece and one of the looks that best sums up the provocative personality of the Italian label in the early 2000s.
A black dress that fools you at first glance
At first glance, it looks like a simple black satin dress, fitted and midi length. But as soon as Irina turns to the side, the true design is revealed: the sides are completely laced with black cords held in place by leather tabs and metal eyelets, leaving strips of skin exposed.
The structure combines the severity of a classic black dress with a deliberately sensual construction. The silk satin traces the silhouette, while the cords transform the sides into a kind of open corset. The result is a play of concealing and revealing the body that belongs squarely to the bondage vocabulary of that era.
© JB LacroixThe piece opened the spring-summer 2003 show as the number one look and was modeled by Gisele Bündchen, who also wore it in the campaign shot by Steven Meisel. The dress thus became one of the most recognizable images from that collection.
© Penske MediaThe Dolce & Gabbana that defined the early 2000s
The collection did not hide its references. That show was described as a succession of curvy silhouettes, satin corsets with lace-up details inspired by punk and S&M codes, mixed with tailoring, leather, and a deliberately explicit sensuality.
It was a time when the supermodel era still had an enormous power to create instantly recognizable images. Gisele, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, and Amber Valletta were part of that universe. And the dress Irina is now reviving belongs precisely to that generation.
It wasn’t, moreover, reserved exclusively for Gisele: Naomi Campbell wore it to the 2002 GQ Man of the Year Awards, even before its runway season, and years later it reappeared in Bella Hadid’s wardrobe.
© Sonia MoskowitzIrina changes the message, but not the attitude
The Russian model hasn’t tried to literally recreate the 2003 image. That’s precisely one of the reasons the look works so well. Instead of the famous necklace with the word “SEX” that Gisele wore, Irina chose a silver metallic-fabric choker that wraps around her neck and catches the light.
It’s a small but significant difference. The original spelled out the message; the 2026 version leaves it to the construction of the dress itself. The sensuality is in the lacing, in the flashes of skin between the cords, and in the silhouette.
A look that lets the dress do the talking
Irina kept the rest of the ensemble deliberately understated. She’s wearing black pointed stilettos, paired with opaque black tights that peek through the side openings and emphasize the lingerie feel of the dress.
© Luigi IorioThe absence of superfluous elements matters. She doesn’t need a sweeping cape, a statement bag, or a cascade of jewelry to compete with a piece that already focuses all the attention on the body and those side laces.
From the archive to the red carpet
The choice makes even more sense because Irina has turned her appearance in Venice into a subtle statement about fashion’s memory. When she first arrived on the Lido, she had already reached for another archive piece, a Givenchy jacket from Riccardo Tisci’s era, as a tribute to her friend and former creative director of the maison.
But for the evening she chose something very different: the Dolce & Gabbana that represents one of the most provocative sides of the 2000s.
And that may be why the look is so effective. On a red carpet filled with gowns created specifically for this very moment, Irina chose a piece with a past. One that had already been photographed, walked down a runway, and celebrated by other supermodels and that, 23 years later, still has an undiminished power to turn heads.
© Alessandra Benedetti – CorbisOne supermodel, two eras
Irina Shayk belongs to a different generation of models, but she understands perfectly the power of those iconic images. By bringing this Dolce & Gabbana back in Venice, she’s not competing with Gisele Bündchen.
The same garment shifts bodies, eras, and contexts, but keeps its essence: black satin, skin, laces, and a sensuality that needs no explanation. The result is one of those red-carpet moments that reminds us that archival fashion will always captivate.
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