Dolce & Gabbana

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana presented their first collection in Milan in 1985, two young designers whose partnership would distill the heat, faith and drama of southern Italy into a global luxury house.

Their muse was Sicily, the land of Dolce's childhood: the black-clad widows, the sun-baked piazzas, and the films of Visconti all became the romantic, sensual vocabulary of the brand.

The house perfected a vision of the Mediterranean woman, sculptural corsetry, transparent lace, leopard print and the famous slip dress, that was at once devout and seductive, fragile and powerful.

By the 1990s Dolce & Gabbana dressed a generation of icons, from Madonna to Monica Bellucci, becoming shorthand for an unapologetically passionate, body-celebrating Italian glamour.

Today the house remains a love letter to Italy itself, where baroque churches, family, faith and the Sicilian sun are woven into couture of extraordinary craft and emotion.