Dolce & Gabbana

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana

The Label

Dolce & Gabbana’s aesthetic is anything but coy: They will gleefully squeeze as much excess as is humanly possible into each show-stopping piece, whether a jacket, dress, or suit. “Dolce & Gabbana aren’t subtle,” says Andrew Bolton, associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. “They design blatant statements. Yet they also have a huge sense of irony and whimsy.” After their first collection launched to international acclaim in 1986, the brand soon expanded to knitwear, beachwear, lingerie and accessories; today, they have two main clothing lines—the couture Dolce & Gabbana and the younger, more informal D&G. Earning remarkable financial success (despite the prevalence of fraudulent D&G merchandise), the designers’ way with a corset has become emblematic of their love of va-va-voom dressing—and their awesome tailoring talents.

The Look

Devastatingly sexy, fetishistic designs and a characteristically Italian aesthetic; every collection would look at home on the set of a Fellini movie. Richly colored animal prints, underwear-as-outerwear, pinstripe suits, and plenty of black are all configured in a provocative way, which helped make D&G the obvious choice to create the costumes for Madonna's 1993 "Girlie Show."

The Designer

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana first met in Milan in 1980, while working as assistants in an atelier. Dolce, who studied fashion design and worked for his family's small clothing factory, grew up in a small Sicilian village; Gabbana, a trained graphic designer, grew up in Milan. They had an immediate creative connection and went into business together two years later. Now overseeing what has become a tru fashion empire, the duo has even crossed over into the music world, recording a techno single in 1996 that feature the refrain "D&G is love."

Official Website

www.dolcegabbana.it