Who Is Dolce & Gabbana? The Sicilian House That Never Changed Its Mind

Most fashion houses answer a question about their identity by pointing at the newest
collection. Dolce & Gabbana points at the same handful of motifs it was using in
1987, and that is the whole argument.

How to pronounce Dolce & Gabbana

DOL-cheh eh gab-BAH-nah.

Three things trip people up. The “ce” in Dolce is a soft “cheh” rather than an “s” sound,
so it is DOL-cheh and never DOL-say. The stress in Gabbana lands on the middle syllable,
gab-BAH-nah. And in Italian the ampersand is spoken as “e”, a short “eh”, so the full name
runs as one phrase rather than three separate words.

What Dolce & Gabbana is known for

Sicilian decoration on Milanese tailoring. That is the shortest honest answer, and
everything else follows from it.

In practice the house is known for black lace, corsetry, and four prints it has reworked
since the 1980s rather than retiring: leopard, roses, majolica tilework and the carretto
motif taken from painted Sicilian carts. It is also known for tailoring with a structured
shoulder, which is the half of the collection that gets less attention and lasts longest.

Beyond the clothes, it is known for being the last of the major Italian houses still owned
by its founders, and for Alta Moda, the couture line it launched in 2012 with a debut show in
Taormina.

Two designers, two cities

Domenico Dolce was born in 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, a hill town in the province of
Palermo, and grew up around his family’s tailoring workshop. Stefano Gabbana was born in
Milan in 1962 and trained there. They met in the early 1980s working in the studio of the
designer Giorgio Correggiari, set up a consulting practice together in 1982, and put out
their first collection under their own name in 1985.

The split between the two backgrounds is still the most useful way to read the label.
The construction is Milanese: sharp shoulders, real interfacing, jackets that hold a line
off the body. The decoration is Sicilian: black lace, religious ornament, corsetry, and
prints drawn from the island’s painted carts and majolica tiles. A single Dolce &
Gabbana jacket usually contains both arguments at once.

The codes that keep coming back

Four motifs do most of the work, and the house treats them as permanent rather than
seasonal.

• Black lace. The connective tissue of the whole wardrobe. It turns
  up as a full dress, as an inset panel, as a sleeve. It is the piece that lets a loud
  print sit next to something quiet.
• Leopard. Treated as a neutral rather than a statement, which is
  why it appears on coats, slips and swimwear in the same season.
• Majolica. Taken from Sicilian glazed tilework, usually in blue and
  ochre on white, and cut on brocade and charmeuse.
• Carretto. The painted Sicilian cart. Reworked so many times across
  four decades that it now functions as a house neutral in its own right.

Because the palette carries across collections, pieces bought years apart tend to
work together. A majolica skirt from one season genuinely does sit under a black lace top
from another. That is unusual, and it is the practical reason the house is worth
collecting rather than dipping into.

Alta Moda

In 2012 the house added Alta Moda, its couture line, with a debut show in Taormina on
the east coast of Sicily. It is made to order, shown away from the Milan calendar, and
staged in Italian locations rather than a Paris salon. Alta Moda is not ready-to-wear and
is not sold through retailers. What Luxury Handbags carries is the ready-to-wear line, which is
where the same codes arrive in a wearable, sized form.

Who has worn it

The house’s relationship with Madonna is the best documented. She worked with the
designers on the wardrobe for her 1993 Girlie Show tour and appeared in their campaigns
through the decade. That period, corsetry and all, is the one most people still picture
when they think of the label.

How to buy it

There are two sensible entry points, and they suit different wardrobes.

Start with the tailoring if you want the house without the volume. A single-breasted
tweed jacket carries the codes in the cut and the buttons, and a double crepe coat does
the same. Both layer over things you already own. Luxury Shoes ’s
Dolce & Gabbana
jackets and
coats start around
$1,370.

Start with a printed dress if the print is the reason you are here. Treat it as the
entire outfit, add a sculpted heel, and add nothing else. The
dresses
are the largest part of the assortment.

On sizing: the house labels on the Italian ladder, where the UK figure runs 32 below
the Italian one, so IT 42 is a UK 10. Luxury Handbags lists everything in UK sizing already, and
the full conversion is in our
Dolce & Gabbana size
guide.

If you are weighing the house against its neighbours, we compared it with the Italian
and romantic labels it competes with in
brands like Dolce &
Gabbana. And if the prints are the draw, the
print edit breaks down which
motif suits which wardrobe.

Browse the full
Dolce & Gabbana collection at
Coveti. Every piece is made in Italy and authenticated before it ships.