Nashville’s Megawatt Country Music Stars Gathered in Their Dolce & Gabbana Best for a Summer Dinner

“I honestly didn’t know what I was going to come home to. I’m so blown away by this and not to mention the fact that we all look pretty freaking amazing,” said Tyler Hubbard (one half of Florida Georgia Line). He held court at a table—given the Dolce & Gabbana treatment with white long-stem candles, garden roses, and clusters of ripe citrus fruit and pomegranates—in the backyard of the Nashville home he shares with his wife, Hayley Stommel Hubbard. “But did you turn the sprinklers off?” heckled one dinner partygoer in a Tennessee twang. Thankfully Hubbard had, but everyone still ended up getting soaked by the end of the night (more on that later).

Though Dolce & Gabbana technically has no stores in Music City, the Italian brand is very much a part of the scene. Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, who’s as much a fashion connoisseur as she is a country musician, waxed poetic about her very favorite Dolce boots—black lace thigh-highs with a needle-thin stiletto. “I wore them to the Grammys and for a couple of performances,” she explained, “though I can’t be onstage in them for too long—they’re not the most practical!” That evening her boots were decidedly more sensible but no less chic—leopard-print cowboy boots paired with a very Dolce sunflower-print blouse; she was one of many sporting the yellow floral pattern. As guests arrived for a cocktail party on the thick green lawn, the Nashville summer heat thankfully behaving itself, the scene looked fit for Positano. Men, like John Shearer, Brian Kelley, and Jimi Westbrook, turned up in trim white pants and blousy oxford shirts splashed with a floral motif. Women, like Holly Williams, Clea Shearer, and Lauren Akins, meanwhile, paraded poolside in the label’s wallpaper-size lemon, magnolia, and poppy seed prints. Some wore headpieces, just because, and all had an incredible handbag slung around their arms, Negronis and Aperol Spritzes in hand.

For this visiting writer surveying the crowd, two things were certain. Firstly, despite the number of CMAs and Grammys in the room (or backyard), this was a low-key bunch with an undetectable ego. And secondly, the vibe was more close-knit than competition; during cocktail hour, guests alluded to last week’s card games, shared memories from a recent wedding, and coordinated future trips to the beach. All took turns snapping band and family photos (for some, musical husband and wives, those were one in the same), but the guest who captured everyone’s attention was the adorable daughter of Hubbard, who seemed aware of just how adorable she looked in her Dolce bambino frock.

Just after the sun set, everyone was lured to the table for a feast by local chef Trevor Moran (his restaurant 12South will open soon). Beneath a tent of white linen swags and chandeliers that emitted a warm yellow glow, dinner was served. The meal began with shrimp carpaccio and ended with lemon custard granitas and a marzipan-shell ice cream dish that put the Dolce in Dolce & Gabbana. But before everyone tucked into their feast, Dan Rothmann, president and CEO of North America for the brand, piped up to say how palpable everyone’s Southern hospitality really was. “We travel a lot, we travel the world, we go to a lot of events, and I can tell you we have never had such a welcome anywhere like this.”

Shortly after, Hubbard announced to the crowd a brilliant idea; “Before everybody leaves—I’m not joking about this,” he pressed, “And before the photographer leaves, I think that we could all jump in the pool in our clothes.” And like a man of his word, Hubbard was not joking. Just before midnight, a Champagne-happy and Negroni-giggly crowd began a countdown. Three, two, one, and . . . splash!

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