DOLCE & GABBANA: The Past and the Present. Fashion Designer Domenico Dolce was born September 13, 1958, in Polizzi Generosa a small village near Palermo, Sicily, and Stefano Gabbana was born November 14, 1962, in Venice, Italy. Dolce studied fashion design in Sicily and worked in his family's small clothing factory. But Gabbana had no fashion education; he had studied graphic design. Dolce and Gabbana met in 1980 when they were working as assistants in an atelier in Milan. When they started business together in 1982, they continued to do free-lance designing for others. Their first collection in 1986 won international acclaim, and their first boutique opened in 1989 in Japan. In 1990 they presented their first men's collection and opened their first women's boutique in Milan. That same year, the duo began designing the Complice line for the Genny Group in Milan (Complice had been designed by Versace from 1975 to 1981, and then by Claude Montana until 1987.) Scarves, ties, beachwear, perfume, and accessories were added in 1992. Dolce and Gabbana created the costumes for Madonna's Girlie Show in 1993. The company has published a book called "10 Years of Dolce & Gabbana", illustrating the history of the designer duo through pictures of top fashion photographers. By 1997, their company reported a turnover of £400 million, prompting both designers to announce that they planned to retire by the age of 40 – a promise they happily did not keep By 2005 their turnover was £597 million. The year 2004 brought to the light that things were not as harmonious as they once were between the designing duo. Their celebratory dresses for glamazons are still much in demand. The duo also recently recorded a CD with dancefloor music under the D&G label. There is a good news for fans of the label however as both Dolce and Gabbana have stated that they will continue to produce their award winning creations together.
DOLCE & GABBANA, portrait by
Graziano Origa, pen&ink, blowout retino + pantone + D&G futura font + pantone, 20×25, framed for Nòva100, 2010.
«Non sappiamo come spendere tutti ’sti soldi ma abbiamo sempre paura che ci blocchino la carta di credito…» (D&G)
«Non siamo gay. Siamo diversamente etero» (D&G)
«All men and women want to be sexy. In the last three seasons, when we tried to change shapes with the new volume, customers altered the shape in the shop to be tighter-like before» (D&G)
