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Fashion label dies with us, say Dolce and Gabbana

Italian fashion icons Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said Thursday that their famed Dolce & Gabbana label would die with them.

Published: 6 April 2018 08:34 CEST

Fashion label dies with us, say Dolce and Gabbana

Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

“Once we're dead, we're dead. I don't want a Japanese designer to start designing Dolce & Gabbana,” Gabbana, 55, said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The veteran fashionistas launched their brand in 1985 and continue to work together despite breaking up as a couple in 2004.

“When we split up, we said to ourselves that it was better to divide up everything, because if I took a blow to the head the next day he (Dolce) would have found himself dealing with someone not involved in the industry, like for example my cousin, who could ruin the business,” Gabbana said.

“We have created a trust neither of us can touch.”

Dolce, 59, added that the pair had refused “every offer to buy the brand”.

“You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not free, what do you do? You don't go to the grave with a coffin stuffed with money,” he said.

After decades building up their fashion house, which is famed for its sultry womenswear, Gabbana admits he “doesn't have time” to spend their fortune.

“I'm too busy working. I don't care about becoming richer, my goal is to be successful,” he said.

The two men said they still share an exceptional bond, even though they are no longer romantically linked.

“Even today, what is mine is his, and what is his is mine… our new partners know that's how it is, whether they like it or not,” Dolce said.

“If a love is born when you are young — for me it was the first experience, for him the first love story — it is pure, total,” he said.

The pair will head to New York for an extravaganza of haute couture events from 6th-10th April.

French Vogue celebrates 100 years

French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance.

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