'FIGURE' OUT THE FASHION TREND: Dolce & Gabbana 'Beauty and Sophistication in Motion'

Dolce & Gabbana

The Design House

Early History
From Wikipedia

Domenico Dolce was born on 13 August 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily. Stefano Gabbana was born on 14 November 1962 in Milan. Dolce had enrolled in a three-year course in fashion design at Marangoni Institute but dropped out after four months, because he realized that he already knew everything the school had to teach. His dream was to work for Giorgio Armani, whom he had never met. One day, without making an appointment, he carried his book of sketches over to Armani’s headquarters, on Via Durini. Inside the door, there was a long white carpet leading to the receptionist’s desk. Dolce wasn’t sure if he should walk on it with his shoes on.“I am such a cretino,” he says. “I know nothing.” He decided that he would look ridiculous appearing at the front desk without shoes, so he approached by sidling along the wall, where he could step without sullying the carpet. He doesn’t know if Armani ever saw the sketches.
Dolce found a job as an assistant to a designer named Giorgio Correggiari. One night at a club, he met a kid named Gabbana. Dolce, quiet and shy, was impressed with Gabbana’s good looks and outgoing personality; Gabbana wasn’t so taken with Dolce, but he was happy to hear his advice on how to approach Correggiari for a job. Correggiari ended up hiring Gabbana to work on sportswear, and Dolce taught him how to sketch and the basics of tailoring, and in the process they became a couple. Soon after his hiring, Gabbana was conscribed to 18 months of mandatory military service, but in 1983, after his return in 1982, they had parted ways with Correggiari and were living together in a one-room loft in Milan. The room had a round, wobbly wooden table in the middle, and they would sketch sitting across from each other. If one erased too hard, the table would jiggle and spoil the other’s line. Dolce: “We always filed two different invoices for the freelance work we did, even when we were working for the same client.” Gabbana: “Our accountant said, ‘Why not just do one invoice for both of you? Put Dolce and Gabbana at the top.’ ” So the brand was born, the brainchild of a Milanese bookkeeper

Inspirations and style

Originally inspired by eclectic, thrift shop Bohemia, Dolce & Gabbana's deeply colored, animal prints have been described as "haute hippy dom" taking inspiration in particular from Italy's prestigious film history. "When we design it's like a movie (Domenico)," says Domenico Dolce. "We think of a story and we design the clothes to go with it (Domenico)." They claim to be more concerned about creating the best, most flattering clothes than sparking trends, once admitting that they wouldn't mind if their only contribution to fashion history was a black bra (Dolce & Gabbana 2007).
D & G trademarks include underwear-as-outerwear (such as corsets and bra fastenings), gangster boss pinstripe suits, and extravagantly printed coats. Meanwhile their feminine collections are always backed by powerful ad campaigns, like the black-and-white ads, featuring model Marpessa photographed by Ferdinando Scianna in 1987 (Dolce & Gabbana). "They find their way out of any black dress, any buttoned-up blouse (Domenico)," says Rossellini. "The first piece of theirs I wore was a white shirt, very chaste, but cut to make my breasts look as if they were bursting out of it (Domenico)."
Once dubbed the "Gilbert and George of Italian fashion", Dolce & Gabbana gave their fashion interests a musical turn in 1996, by recording their own single, in which they intoned the words "D&G is love" over a techno beat (Dolce & Gabbana 2011). Newer to the design game than other heavyweight Italian fashion houses such as Versace and Armani, the pair acknowledge that luck has played its part in their phenomenal success. 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 did not keep (Domenico).

Dolce & Gabbana Make Capri a paparazzi-free zone

Suzy Menkes

INTERNATIONAL VOGUE EDITOR

PHOTOS:Courtesy Dolce & Gabbana

Below the exploding fireworks, brighter than the bauble of a full moon, a bride bobbed on the surf in a little boat.
The airwaves were filled with Fifties hit Mambo Italiano, played with gusto as guests dressed in Capri glamour danced on the rocky shore.
Welcome to Southern Italy! In an exquisite fashion event, Dolce & Gabbana captured the spirit of the Mediterranean in a flurry of full skirts, tiny waists, bold patterns, intricate jewellery, lush fur and two-piece swimsuits. (The sensual swimwear was often a seductive partner to the fur).

By the time that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were walking the seashore ‘catwalk’, and then waiting for the models in their swishing skirts to climb back up the hill, the audience, primarily of couture clients, was drowning out the music with applause.

The intimacy of this exceptional event in a secret cove off the Italian Island, meant that this was the rarest of events: a paparazzi-free zone.

The show started with grand opera – a fitting backdrop to an important project for the design duo. They have been taking their private collections around Italy from Sicily, where Domenico has his roots, to Venice and now Capri.
“It’s about the beauty of Italy – We don’t really have Alta Moda here – we wanted to do something for our country,” said an emotional Stefano, as he talked through the collection in an improvised dressing room overlooking the choppy water.
There were details of raised floral embroidery, sandals with clusters of beaded flowers, a gilded crown that might have been a Neapolitan treasure and a dress with the naïve hand-painting of a map of the Amalfi coast.

The event was joyous and fun, with a casual glamour that Domenico claimed was last seen in the era of Liz Taylor, Princess Soraya of Iran, the Duchess of Windsor and Jackie Kennedy in the high tide of Capri chic.
With the Fifties song Volare as the inevitable accompaniment, the show seemed both extravagant – and intimate.
After a Paris haute couture season where few collections seemed dedicated to clients, there was a post-show scramble up to the rustic villa on the hillside, where immediate orders could be placed.
The originality of the collection was that it was multi-seasonal, like its global clients, who were dressing for a Russian winter or balmy Asia.

The show started with a whirl of full, light, long skirts, sailor-striped or floral, with low cut bodices framing chests decorated with jewels. The first of exotic beach wear appeared as this season’s hot item: shorts. They were pretty and decorative, worn under a swish of a long coat.

Even more sensual was the beach babe in a plush fur coat with matching knee-high boots.
Practical winter clothes included shapely tweed suits, dappled-surface lynx jackets and classic black dresses from a duo whose fantasy is rooted in body-conscious tailoring.
For high summer, there were genuine day clothes: a horizontally-striped top and full skirt, a rose pink lace dress, or one with a flower print.

Dolce & Gabbana distilled their fashion codes to produce the essence of Italy. Gorgeous as the setting was, it would have been easy to fall into a pastiche of Italian style in the post-war years.

Marie-Chantal of Greece spoke for three generations – herself, her daughter Olympia and her mother, Chantal Miller – when she said:
“It was beautiful and magical – a winter show on the rocks of Capri, quite surreal, with fur, jewels and boating stripes. And then pasta!”