| Type | Pr, D.Gelfond |
|---|---|
| Industry | Fashion |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Milan, Italy |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, handbags, sunglasses, watches |
| Employees | 3,150 |
| Website | dolcegabbana.it |
Dolce & Gabbana (Italian pronunciation: [ˌdolʧe e gabˈbaːna]) is an Italian luxury industry fashion house.[1] The company was started by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million.[2] Domenico Dolce was born on September 13, 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily. Stefano Gabbana was born on November 14, 1962 in Venice, and according to some sources in Milan, Italy (Gabbana, Stephano 2007). The two met in Milano in 1980 and worked for the same fashion house. In 1982 they established a designer consulting studio. In time it grew to become “Dolce & Gabbana”. They presented their first women’s collection in 1985 in Milan, where a year later their store would open its doors in 1986 (Dolce & Gabbana 2011).
Two years later they launched their leotard line and in 1989 started designing underwear and swimming costumes (Domenico). Dolce and Gabbana started to export their products in Japan and other countries like the U.S. where they found their own showroom in 1990 (Gabbana, Stephano 2011). The same year they showed their men’s collections. They launched their first perfume Dolce & Gabbana in 1992 (Dolce & Gabbana 2011). They won the Woolmark award in 1991 and the prize “most feminine flavor of the year” in 1993 (Dolce & Gabbana 2007). They won an Oscar for best male perfume in 1996. Towards the end of the 1990’s their sales was around 500 million dollars and in 2003 alone their revenue reached 633.2 million dollars (Gabbana, Stephano 2011).
Contents |
Dolce & Gabbana has two central lines with a few key distinct differences:
Dolce&Gabbana (spelled without spaces, unlike the name of the company) specializes in luxury items influenced more by designers and is more formal and 'timeless', responding to long-term trends rather than seasonal changes. It also sells sunglasses and corrective eyewear, purses, and watches. In April 2009 it launched its make-up range, unveiled at Selfridges, London by Scarlett Johansson.[3] In February 2010, it was announced that American singer Madonna would design a collection of sunglasses set to be released in May of that year. It also has a set of fragrances for men and women.
D&G is a slightly more casual line that follows an urban inspiration and attempts to set trends rather than follow them. It is the younger, more flamboyant line of the brand. Unlike Dolce&Gabbana, D&G sells watches as well as clothing. D&G has been voted the UK's best luxury brand and in July 2009 D&G signed a lucrative deal with singer Alexandra Burke which will see her model its fashion lines in her music videos and in promotions. D&G is scheduled to be discontinued after its Spring 2012 season.
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 and 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). But fundamentally they are known for making women look, quite simply, sexy. "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 and 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 happily did not keep (Domenico).
There are five freestanding Dolce & Gabbana boutiques in the United States in:
Dolce & Gabbana also has kiosks in several department stores, including Bergdorf Goodman, Lord and Taylor, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, and plans to expand into the American cities of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
Brazil
Mexico
Chile
Argentina
Panama
Dolce and Gabbana is also sold c/o Holt Renfrew department stores at 4 locations in Canada as well as Harry Rosen (Calgary, Vancouver & Toronto – Bloor Street) and La Maison Simons.
The first self-owned flagship store was open on 12 June 2004 in Alexandra House, Central, Hong Kong Island.[6]
Lebanon
Singapore
India
Indonesia
South Korea
Japan
Qatar
China
Taiwan
Macau
Thailand
Saudi Arabia
Algeria
New Zealand
Although there are no dedicated stores in New Zealand the brand is becoming increasingly popular with the brand becoming more and more available through online shopping.
Australia
Dolce & Gabbana was publicly criticized by Britain's advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in January 2007, for an advertising campaign showing models brandishing knives.
Following complaints from consumers' groups in February 2007, Dolce & Gabbana pulled an advertisement in Madrid, Spain and Paris, France that showed a man holding a woman to the ground by her wrists while a group of men look on. Spain's Labour and Social Affairs Ministry branded the campaign as illegal and humiliating to women, saying the woman's body position had no relation to the products Dolce & Gabbana was trying to sell.[8] Italian publications followed suit, banning the ad. This advertisement has been called "a glorification of gang rape" by many, and has been declared "One of the Most Controversial Advertisements in Fashion History[9]," by Debonair Magazine.
Dolce & Gabbana made the "DG" logo an iconic symbol,[10] but they were never able to get the matching internet address DG.com. In fact, DG.com is one of the oldest Internet domains and was already registered in 1986 by the computer company Data General, now defunct. DG.com was purchased in June 2010 by the US Variety Store chain Dollar General which uses a different DG logo to sell its products.
In May 2009, the Italian government charged Dolce & Gabbana with tax evasion for having moved assets for about 249 million euro to tax haven Luxembourg in the 2004-2006 period.[11][12]
|
||||||||||||||||||||