100 Most Influential People in Fashion

Fashion Influentials #34: Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana

Fashion designers Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce arrive at the Dolce & Gabbana Party held at the Baoli Restaurant during the 60th International Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2007 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images Entertainment)

DOLCE & GABBANA
Met:
1982 in Milan, Italy
Brands:
Dolce&Gabbana, D&G,
D&G Junior
Celebrity fans:
Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, the Beckhams, Paris Hilton
Beginnings.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana met at a nightclub in Milan in 1982 while they were working as assistants in an atelier. Two years later they started both a romantic relationship and a business together, with some help from Domenico's family company of tailors, Dolce Saverio. In 1985, they were invited to show their homemade, exhibitionist collection in a fashion show honoring "New Talents" sponsored by the Milano Collezioni.

Career Highs.
That first show won the duo national acclaim, and as they say, the rest was history. The brand expanded to beachwear, menswear, lingerie, and fragrances, and in 1989, they opened their first store in Tokyo. Career highs for these two are too many to count: They have Madonna on speed dial, 200 stores worldwide, 2,000 employees and more than 579 million pounds coming in annually. They are the couturiers of the stars, and they have refused to sell out to LVMH and the Gucci group - in fact, the only two shareholders in the Dolce & Gabbana empire are Dolce and Gabbana.

We wouldn’t mind if our only contribution to the fashion world was a black bra! We want to produce the best, most flattering clothes.
- Dolce and Gabbana

One of the offending D&G knife advertisements.
Career Lows.
The couple received some criticism by the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain in January of 2007. The advertising police organization disapproved of some of Dolce & Gabbana's advertisements, which featured models holding and waving knives around. A month later, D&G pulled an advertisement in Madrid and Paris in which a man was holding a woman down to the ground by her wrists while a group of men watched. Spain's Labour and Social Affairs Ministry claimed the campaign was illegal and humiliating to women.

Legacy.
Besides the countless collections, red carpet gowns and celebrity performance getups that Dolce & Gabbana have given the world, they are known for their distinctive aesthetic of fierce, sleek and purely sexy clothes that make the absolute best of any woman's body. In fact, Isabella Rosselini said, "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."

Heidi Klum in Dolce & Gabbana.
Get the Look.
Bold colors, body-hugging (but always flattering) shapes, wild prints and plenty of cleavage - these are the trademarks of Dolce & Gabbana. If you want to look sexy, these are your guys. Find something that fits close to you and enhances your shape, but keep it sleek instead of soft. The lines should be as sharp as a military uniform with a soft femininity.

- Olivia