Destined to tug on the heartstrings of every woman in the room, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana sent out their Viva La Mamma collection.

With a backdrop of mothers and children – including two lively rascals who couldn’t wait to get out of there, prompting many sympathetic ‘I’ve been there’ looks from editors – the models stepped out in the latest finery. 'Aaahs' greeted those with babes in arms, especially Emily, the youngest of the three bambinos, in a little pink dress – such tiny feet! Applause rang out for the little girl, wearing a pint-sized version of her mother’s outfit decorated with roses, the collection’s motif. And there was such unreserved smiling and general joy at the spectacle, it was hard to remember we were sitting at a fashion show at all.

Stefano Gabbana said it was about: ‘All the women your mother can be.’ And here she was in a demure blush pink embroidered dress as if attending a wedding, in saucy guipure black lace with naughty intentions, in a rich emerald green fur coat, swinging a matching tote bag filled with fresh roses, in Madonna and child renaissance prints and gilt/bejewelled headphones, and in splendidly curvaceous body-contouring black – see the very pregnant Bianca Balti who emerged to the Spice Girls’ emotive chorusing of ‘Mama I love you, Mama I care.’

Brocade dresses were embroidered with messages of love: ‘Je t’aime maman’ and ‘ti voglio bene mamma’. Silks were printed and stitched with children's illustrations – beautifully scrawled by pre-schoolers – that brought a tear to many an eye. Perhaps that’s why Domenico and Stefano had so generously issued silk handkerchiefs before the show to dab them away.

The collection summed up the joie de vivre of the designers, not to mention their love of women – such a vital gene in any designer’s DNA, but laid bare here in one great, respectful, Viva La Mamma moment.

Images: Imaxtree