The collaboration between these two individual and unique talents, has produced, in the case of Dolce and Gabbana, a world class brand, fusing the impeccable and perfectionist tailoring of Domenico Dolce with the imaginative flare and theatrics of Stefano Gabbana. The resulting amalgam is a full on, in your face, hot blooded, Italian style.
The Dolce and Gabbana label is now a real mega-force in the world, having been taken up and portrayed across the globe by hordes of celebrities, ranging across all fields, be it in film, pop music or sport. Dolce and Gabbana have a very big claim, in the twenty first century, to be dressing the stars!
The company was originally established in 1985 by the Italian designers Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy, as an Italian luxury fashion house and by 2005 it had expanded to where the turnover, in euros, was over €750 million! They operate mainy on two central lines that have distinct differences. Dolce&Gabbana produce luxury pieces with high designer styles creating more formal and classic looks that have a more long-term appeal.
The other is D&G and is a slightly more casual line and is inspired by more urban and seasonal trends, and attempts to set trends rather than follow them. This is the younger, and more flamboyant and experimental line of the brand. Their clothing designs are usually black in color and geometric in shape.
Domenico Dolce was born in 1958, his father being a tailor from Palermo and Stefano Gabbana born the son of a Milanese print worker in 1962. They first met in Sicily, Dolce’s birthplace, and frequent holiday destination. It was this location that became the key font of inspiration for them. The motifs they have played with ranging from the traditional Sicilian girl in black stockings, black lace and peasant skirts with shawl fringing to the Sicilian gangster in slick pinstripe
suit and fedora.
The Dolce and Gabbana label continues into the new millenium, paying homage to such great past Italian film legends as Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini and Sophia Loren as well as dressing and delighting many of today’s up and coming legends of film, music and football.