Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's love story
Famous designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have created a fashion empire together, and they maintain it even after the break.
Famous designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have created a fashion empire together, and they maintain it even after their break. The famous Domenico Dolce (63) was born in Palermo, Sicily. His father worked as a tailor and from there, his love for fashion began. During his studies, he worked in his family's clothing factory. Then he moved to Milan where he worked in a design studio.
Stefano Gabbana (59) was born in Milan and he became interested in fashion because of designer Fiorucci. He studied graphic design at university and planned to pursue advertising, and after trying it out he quit and turned to fashion.
Dolce and Gabbana met while both of them were working as assistants in a studio in Milan, and they began their relationship in 1982. Still, they designed for other companies, and at the beginning of the ‘fight’ for success, they started creating their own fashion shows wherever they went.
When they attracted enough attention, they fought for their place at Milan Fashion Week in 1984, and in October of the following year, they made their world debut at the New Talent fashion show in Milan, where they received many accolades.
A year later, they launched the Dolce & Gabbana women’s collection, and in 1989 they opened their first boutique in Japan. This was followed by the creation of a men's collection and the opening of a women's boutique in Milan.
The duo publicly admitted in 2000 that they had been in love since the mid-1980s, but shortly afterward they announced their breakup. Despite the break, their fashion empire survived.
'On a professional level, we are still together. We work together and have a lot of understanding. What happened in the past is still there, it continues and it will last forever. We have a strong love that binds us together, ' Dolce said in an interview with Corriere Della Sera at the time.
Stefano once said he was tired of being seen as a homosexual and he asked people to stop associating him with his sexual orientation. 'I don’t want to be called‘ gay. I’m just a man and that is it, ' Gabbana told Italian Corriere Della Sera. 'The word 'gay' was invented by those who need to label people and I don't want to be defined through my sexual orientation, ' the famous designer added.
