Dolce and Gabbana

Early history

Domenico Dolce (born 13 August 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily) began his career in the fashion industry after dropping out of a three-year course in fashion design at Marangoni Institute, believing that he knew everything the school had to teach. His dream was to work for Giorgio Armani so one day, he carried his book of sketches over to Armani's headquarters with the intention of showing the designer his work. Inside the door, there was a long white carpet leading to the receptionist's desk. Dolce was not sure if he should walk on it with his shoes on. "I am such a cretino", he says. "I know nothing". He decided that he would look ridiculous appearing at the front desk without shoes, so he approached by sidling along the wall, where he could step without sullying the carpet. He handed the book to the receptionist and to this day, Dolce does not know if Armani ever saw the sketches.

Dolce found a job as an assistant to a designer named Giorgio Correggiari. One night at a club, he met a young man named Stefano Gabbana (born on 14 November 1962 in Milan, Italy). Dolce was impressed with Gabbana's good looks and outgoing personality and Gabbana was happy to hear Dolce's advice on how to approach Correggiari for a job. Correggiari ended up hiring Gabbana to work on sportswear, and Dolce taught him how to sketch and the basics of tailoring, and in the process they became a couple.

Soon after his hiring, Gabbana was conscripted for 18 months of mandatory military service, but in 1983, after his return in 1982, they had parted ways with Correggiari and were living together in a one-room loft where they often practised sketching. Dolce: "We always filed two different invoices for the freelance work we did, even when we were working for the same client". Gabbana: "Our accountant said, 'Why not just do one invoice for both of you? Put Dolce and Gabbana at the top'". So the brand was born, the brainchild of a Milanese bookkeeper.

Early collections

The first collection from the design duo was shown in October 1985 alongside five other up-and-coming Italian labels as part of Milan Fashion Week. The two did not have enough money to hire models or provide accessories for them, so they sought help from their friends. The models (their friends) simply wore their personal items to complement the clothing. They used a bed sheet that Dolce had brought from home as their stage curtain.

The pair labeled their first collection Real Women, due in part to the use of amateur local women on the runway. Their sales from their first collection were disappointing enough for Gabbana to cancel the fabric order they'd put in to create their second collection. However Dolce's family offered to help meet their costs when the two visited them in Sicily over Christmas, and the fabric company did not receive the cancellation notice in time — so the fabric was ready for them back in Milan upon their return. They produced their next collection in 1986 and opened their first store that same year. Michael Gross wrote of their third collection in a 1992 interview, "They were a secret known only to a handful of Italian fashion editors. Their few models changed behind a rickety screen. They called their collection of T-shirt-cotton and elastic-silk pieces Transformation". Their clothing in this collection came with instructions on the seven different ways a piece could be worn in an outfit, as the wearer could use Velcro and snaps to alter the clothing's form.

Their fourth collection was the first to make a significant impact on the Italian fashion market. In this collection Dolce drew upon his Sicilian roots. The advertising campaign collection was shot by photographer Ferdinando Scianna on location in Sicily, and featured Dutch model Marpessa Hennink in black and white pictures inspired by the Italian cinema of the 1940s. They continued the use of Italian cinema as inspiration in their fifth collection, drawing on the work of filmmaker Luchino Visconti and his film The Leopard.

One of the pieces from their fourth collection was labeled "The Sicilian Dress" by the fashion press, and was named by author Hal Rubenstein as one of the 100 most important dresses ever designed. It is considered to be the most representative piece of this era for the brand. Rubenstein described the piece in 2012 by writing, "The Sicilian dress is the essence of Dolce & Gabbana, the brand's sartorial touchstone. The dress takes its cue from a slip—but it's a slip that's adorned Anna Magnani, and it's a silhouette that has graced Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren, [and so forth]. The straps fit tight to the body just as bra straps would; the neckline runs straight across but gets waylaid at least twice, once on each side to caress each breast and in the middle to meet an uplifting tuck that's giving a gentle push up. The slip doesn't just slide down, but comes in at the waist to hold the figure firmly but not too tightly and then widens to emphasise the hips, only to fall with a slight taper at the knees to guarantee that the hips will sway when the wearer walks."

The 1980s and 1990s

In 1987, the two launched a separate knitwear line, and in 1989 they started designing a lingerie line and a beachwear line. Two years later they launched their leotard line, and in 1989 they began designing underwear and swimming costumes. In 1989 Dolce & Gabbana opened their first store in Japan under partnership with Kashiyama Co. They started to export their products to the United States, where they founded their own showroom in 1990. In 1992, the same year they presented their men’s collection, they also launched their first perfume Dolce & Gabbana. They won an Oscar for best male perfume in 1996. Towards the end of the 1990s their sales were around 500 million dollars and in 2003 alone their revenue reached 633.2 million dollars. Then, in 1990, they launched their first men's collection. That year they also moved the design house into its first official offices and began to design gowns and other more expensive pieces in addition to their original clothing. Their 1990 Spring/Summer women's collection referenced the mythological painting of Raphael, and the duo began to build a reputation for crystal-encrusted clothing. The 1991 Fall/Winter women's collection was also adorned by trinkets, including filigree medals and embellished corsets. The 1992 Fall/Winter women's collection was then inspired by the silver screen of the 1950s, though the collection still included crystal embellished body suits.

By 1991, their men's collection was awarded the Woolmark Award for the most innovative men's collection of the year. What is considered to be their first foray into international recognition came when Madonna wore a corset made of gemstones and accompanying jacket from Dolce & Gabbana to the premiere of Truth or Dare: In Bed with Madonna at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. The duo then partnered with Madonna in 1993 to design over 1500 costumes for the artist's Girlie Show international tour in support of her 1992 album Erotica. In an interview about the costumes, Madonna stated that, "Their clothes are sexy with a sense of humor—like me." In 1994, the house's trademark double-breasted jacket was named "La Turlington" after model Christy Turlington. That same year the company launched its second main line—D&G, a line aimed at younger individuals. In 1996 the D&G runway show only appeared only on the Internet and not the runway, in an experimental move towards new media. That year Dolce & Gabbana also designed the costumes for the film Romeo + Juliet.

In terms of the film industry, both Dolce & Gabbana appeared in the 1995 film The Star Maker (L'Uomo delle Stelle) by director Giuseppe Tornatore, playing minor roles as extras. They appeared in more significant cameo roles in Rob Marshall's film-adaptation Nine. As stylists, they also worked on the music video Girl Panic! by Duran Duran.

In terms of their market expansion in the 1990s, in 1989 Dolce & Gabbana signed an agreement with the Kashiyama group to open their first boutique in Japan. They released their first fragrance for women in 1992, called "Dolce & Gabbana Pour Femme", which was awarded the Perfume Academy's 1993 award for best feminine fragrance of the year. Their first male fragrance, "Dolce & Gabbana pour Homme", was the recipient of the best masculine fragrance of the year award from the same Academy in 1995. That year Dolce & Gabbana's collections caused a controversy with the British and Italian press, when they selected the American gangster motif as inspiration for their work. Dolce & Gabbana transposed this Fall/Winter 1995 inspiration onto women's wear, which critics stated brought an erotic edge to the clothing. The duo had used the motif before as well. In 1992 photographer Steven Meisel shot an ad campaign for the house in which the models posed in "gangster chic". This included wide-lapelled 1930s style coats and black leather caps.

Author Nirupama Pundir stated that, "Dolce & Gabbana, with their superfeminine and fantastical style, broke away from the serious and sober-minded fashions that dominated during much of the Nineties."

They won the Woolmark award in 1991, and the prize "most feminine flavor of the year" in 1993.

2000s

Dolce & Gabbana continued to work with Madonna, designing the costumes for her Drowned World Tour in 2001, in support of her 2000 album Music. They also designed costumes for the international tours of Missy Elliot, Beyoncé, and Mary J. Blige. In 1999, the duo appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in support of singer Whitney Houston, who used the show to debut the Dolce & Gabbana designed costumes for her My Love is Your Love tour, considered by fashion and music critics to be unusually risqué. The duo continued to design costumes for musical artists through the 2000s, including the costumes for Kylie Minogue's Showgirl Homecoming tour. Madonna also participated in Dolce & Gabbana's 2010 advertising campaigns.

In the 2000s, Dolce & Gabbana took a great deal of inspiration from the sport of football as well. In 2003 the men's line took its main inspiration from the world's great football stars. Other forms of art were taking inspiration from Dolce & Gabbana too. In 2003 dance music artist Frankie Knuckles said that the fashion house was a "great barometer" for trends in both fashion and music. As for their impact on the design world, in 2002 the corsets that were a key part of early Dolce & Gabbana designs were being re-discovered by many of Europe's main designers as a coming trend. In recent years Dolce & Gabbana has begun holding private viewings of their new collections for buyers, in order to sell their collections before they become public and in order to pre-empt the copying of their designs by fast fashion companies.

By 2005 their turnover was €597 million. In 2006, the company started a new journey in accessories and leather goods for men and women. The company also stepped into cosmetics, with Scarlett Johansson as the face of the advertising campaign.

In 2012, D&G was merged with Dolce & Gabbana in order to strengthen the main line. The final independent D&G collection occurred in the Spring/Summer 2012 collection shown in September 2011. The New Yorker published in 2005 that, "Dolce and Gabbana are becoming to the two-thousands what Prada was to the nineteen-nineties and Armani was to the nineteen-eighties—gli stilisti whose sensibility defines the decade." As for personal awards, in both 1996 and 1997 Dolce & Gabbana were named by FHM as the designers of the year. In 2003 GQ Magazine named Dolce & Gabbana among their "Men of the Year". The following year readers of British Elle voted Dolce & Gabbana the best international designers at the 2004 Elle Style Awards. Dolce & Gabbana celebrated the 20th anniversary of their brand on 19 June 2010 at the Piazza della la Scala and Palazzo Marino in Milan. A public exhibition was also held the following day that included a room in which several dozen televisions were piled haphazardly upon each other, each showing a different one of the design house's previous collections going back over its twenty-year history.

Brands

Dolce & Gabbana had two central lines (D&G and Dolce & Gabbana) until 2012, when the lines merged under the label Dolce & Gabbana.

Dolce&Gabbana

Dolce&Gabbana (spelled without spaces, unlike the name of the company) specialises in luxury items influenced more by designers and is more formal and 'timeless', responding to long-term trends as well as 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. In February 2010, it was announced that American singer Madonna would design a collection of sunglasses titled MDG, set to be released in May of that year. It also has a set of fragrances for men and women. An example is 'The One' which is a perfume by Dolce&Gabbana.

D & G

D & G was the younger, more flamboyant diffusion line of the brand. Unlike Dolce&Gabbana, D&G sold watches as well as clothing: watches were manufactured by Naloni and Binda Group. In 2011, Dolce & Gabbana decided to discontinue the D & G-line in order to put "more strength and energy" into their other collections.

Other lines

Dolce & Gabbana created a bridal collection, but only between 1992 and 1998. The Dolce & Gabbana Home Collection—started in 1994—was also discontinued in 1999, with the exception of unique pieces being created for D&G premises. The first women's beachwear collection was developed in 1989, followed by the first men's beachwear collection in 1992. D&G launched an eyewear line in 1998 and a timepieces line in 2000. That same year D&G launched both a men's and women's underwear collection, separate from their Dolce & Gabbana lingerie collection. In 2001 they launched the D&G Junior line for children. In 2006 the duo launched the Anamalier line of leopard print accessories for women, and in 2007 they launched a line of crocodile travel cases for men. Other bags produced by the house include the Miss Sicily tote bag, and the "Dolce" bag, offered in straw and leather.

In 2009 they launched their first line of color cosmetics, with Scarlett Johansson as the face of the advertising campaign. Dolce & Gabbana launched its first line of fine jewellery in late 2011 with an 80-piece line including bejewelled rosaries, charm bracelets, and necklaces. They later launched a fine jewellery collection for men. Dolce & Gabbana have received several awards for their fragrances, as was described in the above sections. Their current fragrances include: "The One", "Sport", "Light Blue", "Dolce", "Classic", "Sicily", "The One Rose", and the original scents "Pour Homme" and "Parfum". On 16 October 2014, the company announced that Colin Farrell would be the face of their new fragrance called "Intenso."

Internet

Dolce & Gabbana made the "DG" logo an iconic and instantly recognizable symbol, 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. After that company closed in 1999, the url went to EMC before Dollar General purchased it in 2010 after a bidding war with Dolce & Gabbana.

Sports

Dolce & Gabbana has designed the on-field attire for AC Milan since 2004. In addition to having their on-field uniforms designed by Dolce & Gabbana, the players of AC Milan also dress in team-issued Dolce & Gabbana attire when at official functions off the field. The duo also designed the off-field suits for the Italian National Football Team. In 2010 Dolce & Gabbana signed a three-year deal with the Chelsea Football Club to design and provide the club's on- and off-field uniforms and attire. The deal included the creation of clothing for female staff members in addition to male staff members and the players themselves. The off-field outfits designed for the club included a dark blue suit featuring the lion symbol on the breast pocket. The designers also re-designed the club's director's lounge and main office reception area. Dolce & Gabbana are also the named sponsors of the Milano Thunder Italian Boxing Team.

Products

In 2006 Dolce & Gabbana partnered with Motorola to produce the Motorola V3i Dolce & Gabbana cellular phone. Then in 2009, Dolce & Gabbana partnered with Sony Ericsson to produce a version of its Jalou cellular phone line with 24-karat gold details and the logo of the design house emblazoned on the co-designed piece of technology. Dolce & Gabbana also partnered with Citroën to co-design a version of their C3 Pluriel vehicle. In 2010 Dolce & Gabbana partnered with Martini to produce a "gold edition" of its vermouth. In 2010 the design house then teamed with singer Madonna to release a co-designed line of sunglasses called MDG.

Advertising campaigns

The commercial created for the first feminine fragrance of Dolce & Gabbana ran for several years in Italy, created by filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore, scored by Ennio Morricone, and starring actress Monica Bellucci. The 30-second surrealist commercial begins with a man slapping an octopus against the stone ridges of a tide pool. He stands and looks around himself at different women participating in their daily lives. One woman (Bellucci) is seen changing into a 50s-style bathing suit behind a white sheet being held up by two other women. After she changes, she tosses her bra atop a prickly pear cactus and walks towards the ocean. Later she is seen lying atop a well-made bed, and the man who saw her is standing outside her window, holding her bra up to his nose. The film closes with the image of the Dolce & Gabbana fragrance bottles against a black backdrop. In 2003 the Dolce & Gabbana perfume Sicily was advertised in another surrealist commercial about a Sicilian funeral, which was also directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Gisele Bundchen starred in the 2006 commercial for the fragrance "The One", featuring Bundchen in front of a vanity mirror being made up, with flashes of a mob of cameramen interspersed; she then puts on a golden dress, shoes, and has a pair of D&G sunglasses put on her face. Photographers and filmmakers that have worked with Dolce & Gabbana on advertising campaigns have included Giampaolo Barbieri, Michel Comte, Fabrizio Ferri, Steven Klein, Steven Meisel, Mert + Marcus, Jean Baptiste Mondino, Ferdinando Scianna, Giampaolo Sgura, Mario Sorrenti, Sølve Sundsbø, Mario Testino, Giuseppe Tornatore, and Mariano Vivanco. Dolce & Gabbana have won two Leadawards for their campaigns, Germany's leading advertising awards. In 2004 they won for their Fall/Winter 2003/04 campaign and in 2006 they won for their Fall/Winter 2005/06 campaign.

Inspirations and style

Originally inspired by eclectic, thrift shop bohemian style, 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 & Gabbana 2007). Sicily and Sicilian culture is the most important style and identity of Dolce & Gabbana.

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). "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 & 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 Armani and Versace, 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 did not keep (Domenico).

Following the designers Dolce & Gabbana spotting a Veneziano painting of Christ on the cross wearing a pair of their brand name underwear briefs in the Venice Biennale they commissioned the artist to do a portrait of them with the Madonna portrayed as the likeness of the chanteuse and performer Madonna Ciccone and the courtiers as two putti at her feet.

In January 2016, the company launched a highend fashion range aimed at wealthy Muslim women featuring a collection of hijabs and abayas printed with daisies, lemons and roses.

Books

In addition to designing clothing, Dolce & Gabbana have co-authored nearly two dozen books featuring photographic narratives as well as collections of their own work. The proceeds of many of these books go to charities including the Children’s Action Network and the Butterfly Onlus "école sans frontières" Foundation. The following is a bibliography of their literary works:

Spaces and exhibitions

Dolce & Gabbana opened the La sede di via San Damiano atelier in September 1995. They opened the seven-floor combined boutique and corporate space Lo showroom di via Goldoni in 2002, moving for its prior main showroom at the Piazza Umanitaria. In July 2006 Dolce & Gabbana then opened the 5,000 square foot show floor Lo showroom di via Broggi in Milan. The design house also bought the Il Metropol theatre in Milan, a historic cinema built in the 1940s. It was renovated and reopened in September 2005. In 2006 Dolce & Gabbana opened IL GOLD, an establishment with café, bar, bistro, and restaurant areas. This followed the opening of a co-sponsored drinking establishment the duo founded at their Milanese men's showroom called the Martini Bar in 2003. An additional Martini Bar was later opened at their Shanghai showroom in 2006. In 2009 Dolce & Gabbana had 93 boutiques and 11 factory outlets, and was sold in over 80 countries. In all they have 251 mono-brand stores.

In the United States standalone boutiques can be found in Bal Harbour, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, and New York City. Dolce & Gabbana also operates boutiques in other cities in select department stores: Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman.

In addition to developing runway shows and advertising campaigns for its collections, Dolce & Gabbana use their spaces to host photography and other art exhibitions. Soon after the opening of the Il Metropol, they hosted two exhibitions by artist Ron Arad in the lobby space: Blo-Glo between April 2006 and April 2007, and Bodyguards in late April 2007. They held photography exhibitions featuring the work of Enzo Sellerio in 2007 and Herbert List in 2008. In 2011 Dolce & Gabbana held an open house and architectural exhibition with Studio Piuarch showcasing the studio's various architectural designs and projects since 1996. Studio Piuarch built the Dolce & Gabbana headquarters in 2006, which was where the exhibition and open house was held.

Dolce & Gabbana also uses its spaces for book launches and photographic exhibitions of its own clothing, such as the book launch of their book David Gandy in 2011. They also use other spaces as well, such as the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan, where in May 2009 they staged a photographic exhibition of over 100 images selected from the history of US Vogue over its 90-year history. The exhibition was called Extreme Beauty in Vogue.

The company also has production factories in Legnano and Incisa in Val d'Arno.

Advertising

Dolce & Gabbana was publicly criticised by Britain's advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in January 2007, for an advertising campaign showing models brandishing knives.

Following complaints from consumer groups in February 2007, Dolce & Gabbana pulled an advertisement in Spain 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. Italian publications followed suit, banning the ad. This advertisement was called "a glorification of gang rape" and declared "one of the most controversial advertisements in fashion history" by Debonair Magazine. When asked about the ad being banned in Spain, Dolce & Gabbana responded that the "Spaniards were a bit backward." According to the Daily Mail, Dolce & Gabbana's ad was said to "offend the dignity of the woman."

This particular ad was brought up again seven years later by Kelly Cutrone, a well-known fashion publish, when she mentioned it on her Twitter account. According to Nextshark.com, "she slammed Dolce & Gabbana, claiming the ad, which depicts a woman being pinned to the group by a half-naked man as three men look on, stimulates a 'gang bang'." According to the Huffington Post UK, feminist writer Louise Pennington recently commented on the image also. She stated that, "This particular image is a representative of an increasingly misogynistic contraction of women in the fashion industry demonstrating very clear links between the fashion-beauty industry and the mainstreaming of pornography. Those who suggest this image is harmless fail to recognize the reality of rape culture and the dehumanization of women's bodies in our pornographic mainstream media."

According to Ira Kalb, who is a professor at Marshall School of Business USC sex does not actually sell. He says "many believe that sex sells even though there are numerous cases when it does not." According to researcher and feminist Rosalind Gill, she explains that one of the most significant shifts in advertising in the last decade or more has been the construction of a new figure: a young, attractive, heterosexual woman who knowingly and deliberately plays with her sexual power and is always 'up for it' (that is, sex)." Research conducted by M. Jones states advertisers are trying to reach women and encourage them to buy their designer clothes. However, this research suggests that by depicting women as sexual objects, women especially, but also men, perceive the women in the ads more negatively.

Although the checklist in the 1975 NARB (National Advertising Review Board) report provided guidelines for nonsexist language in advertising, neither the American advertising industry nor the three major networks have formally adopted gender-neutral writing guidelines in their published standards for television advertising. Despite different programs implementing rules and regulations for advertisers to follow, many do not and continue to distribute sexist advertisements.

Hong Kong photo ban controversy

On 5 January 2012, Apple Daily reported that only Hong Kong citizens had been prevented from taking pictures of Dolce & Gabbana window displays in both their Hong Kong stores, stirring anti-Mainland Chinese sentiment. In particular staff and security personnel at their flagship store on Canton Road asserted the pavement area outside was private property where photography was forbidden. The actions sparked protests spanning several days and gained international news coverage on 8 January. Citing the case of Zhou Jiugeng, a Nanjing official whose high-living lifestyle was identified by Chinese citizens using internet photographs, local news reports speculated that the Dolce & Gabbana photo ban may have been imposed at the request of some wealthy Chinese government officials attempting to block details on the source of their wealth.

Dolce & Gabbana finally issued a formal apology to Hong Kong citizens from its Milan headquarters on 18 January 2012.

Gay adoption and in vitro fertilisation

In an interview in 16 March 2015 issue of Italian magazine Panorama, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce aroused controversy when they remarked, "We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one." They also criticized in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and surrogacy by saying, "No chemical offspring and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed." Since the comments were made by two gay men in an industry often seen as gay-friendly, reactions were especially harsh.

Critics took to social media to voice their opposition, with the hashtag #BoycottDolceGabbana garnering 30,000 tweets on Twitter in five days. Celebrities, including Elton John, Madonna, Victoria Beckham, Ricky Martin, Martina Navratilova and Courtney Love, were among those expressing anger over the remarks. Love said she would "burn all of her Dolce and Gabbana clothing", while John, father of two children conceived through IVF, commented, "How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic'. And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF - a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfil their dream of having children." In an Instagram post Madonna, who appeared in a 2010 Dolce & Gabbana campaign, said, "All babies contain a soul however they come to this earth and their families. There is nothing synthetic about a soul!! So how can we dismiss IVF and surrogacy? Every soul comes to us to teach us a lesson. God has his hand in everything even technology! We are arrogant to think Man does anything on his own. As above so below! Think before you speak."

More than 10,000 people signed an online petition calling for Macy’s and Debenhams to stop stocking the brand in their department stores, until D&G retracted their statements and apologized. Protesters also gathered outside Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship London shop calling for an international boycott of the luxury fashion store.

Dolce & Gabbana criticized calls for a boycott on their brand as "medieval" and called for fans to use the hashtag #BoycottEltonJohn, though it resulted in only 1,500 tweets. Social conservative website LifeSiteNews launched a petition in support of Dolce & Gabbana that got more than 20,000 signatures. After being asked during an interview with CNN if he supported having children through IVF, Dolce replied, "Yeah, I don't have anything bad, because the beauty of the world is freedom...We love gay couple. We are gay. We love gay couple. We love gay adoption. We love everything. It's just an express of my private point of view."

Racism

The brand has come under scrutiny for its use of racist imagery in several collections.

In their spring/summer 2013 collection they included earrings and fabric prints that closely resembled imagery associated with the Mammy archetype with many media outlets commenting the likeness. In addition, although much of the clothing featured exaggerated depictions of people of color, all of the models were slim and white.

In the spring of 2016, the brand came under fire for a listing on their web store of a pair of sandals featuring colorful decorations and pom poms with the title of "Slave Sandal in Napa Leather". Other retailers listed them as the Bianca or the Pom Pom sandal. When social media users called the name into question, the listing was changed.

Tax evasion

In May 2009, the Italian government charged Dolce & Gabbana with tax evasion for having moved assets of about 249 million euros to Luxembourg in the 2004–2006 period.

On 19 June 2013, they were found guilty of failing to declare 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of income to authorities after moving their brand to Gado, a Luxembourg-based holding company. The court sentenced them both to one year and eight months in jail. Dolce & Gabbana were quick to file a 90-page appeal and thus did not face any jail time.

On 30 April 2014, a three judge panel overruled the appeal and decided to uphold the initial sentence made last year. However, since they were sentenced to only one year and six months, which is under the two-year minimum, both of them will not serve actual imprisonment in jail.

On Friday, 24 October 2014 both Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were found innocent of tax evasion by the Italian Court of Justice. After the court's decision was announced, Stefano Gabbana tweeted in Italian, "We knew it!!! We are honest people!"