Dolce & Gabbana is one of the leading Italian luxury fashion houses known the world over for its sophisticated and classy designs which embody the Italian label's sensuality. Life Beyond Sport caught up with the fashion geniuses, Mr. Domenico Dolce and Mr Stefano Gabbana in Dubai and had a chat about fashion, lifestyle and life in general.
Tell me about football? The Italian National Team and the World Cup.
DD “We entered the contest for Toutle Mondial. We started a long time ago casually and we were the winners in 2006. This season we won the contract and we sketched the old uniform again. We are very traditional because we always use Blue. That is always the colour of the Italian National Team. We are the makers of the clothes for the football team and for the manager. Usually we dress them differently but this season the managers and coaches wanted the same clothes as the football players.”
“For me the player is a champion, usually we make the white shirt or blue shirt depending on the event but we work around blue and base it on three pieces; Vest, Jacket and the Sporting Trousers. We also work on other items like the Raincoat, Jumper, Scarf SG-Sunglasses, smart shoes, not the athletic wardrobe but the smart wardrobe and casual wear.”
“It also depends because we sketch usually for 5 years but every season we change the style depending on the places the team goes. Like now in Brazil it’s hot so we cannot wear the scarf or jackets. Depending on the places and what is requested, sometimes they need another scarf, another jumper and things like that. They wear the classic wardrobe. Every time when it is an occasion we change something. The entire wardrobe.”
What is happening right now? Why are you in Dubai?
SG “We have one event in a boutique where we are meeting customers and tomorrow we have an interview with Life Beyond Sport.”
What is the success of your career so far?
SG “We cannot say that we have had exactly one big boom, we grew little by little. We did not understand how great the exposure was or the visibility about D&G because we generally stay in the offices all day. When you are working you don’t see it, we find out from the people that come to us and say something and we say oh really, it is true we have this character! Maybe we know who we are but we take this lucky life, this luck from the sky, like a game.”
DD “I think our character is a little low profile because if you go crazy, you will completely lose contact with yourself, if you take yourself too seriously it’s not good. We do not think we’re Mr. Dolce and Mr. Gabbana , we are famous designers, and we are good! SG-“We are not obsessed with money and power. We are obsessed with fashion.”
That is very true because it is beautiful fashion. What else?
SG “It’s different, we want to say we want to grow and it’s very exciting to see the women and men in D&G but we don’t have the obsession about this, never.”
What defines you and your brand? You know when you’re in your office and you’re creating these beautiful things, for men - the suits, the shirts and the shoes for them. Where does the inspiration come from?
SG “In the D&G story we love the women to be very feminine, very sensual, and very sexy and the men very masculine. We love the aesthetics about the men. That is why we love sports because you find the athletes masculine. But the women she doesn’t do sports, she does massage, spa and nails. So we love the aesthetics, like David Beckham or Fabio Cannavaro.”There are so many beautiful sports people all over the world the list can go on forever and they deserve to be celebrated.”
DD “They are now idols (sportsmen) and care about their appearance and not just performance in their respective sports, they need to look beautiful, masculine, strong and healthy. It is now acceptable to look beautiful sexy and masculine. In the past if you were beautiful and sexy then you did not work because you were considered not very smart or talented. SG- today you can be all and you can be the icon that people look up to.”
Advise On Men’s Grooming:
DD “A long time ago in the men’s store in Milano, we opened a grooming spa, but I guess it was too early, people by then did not understand grooming. I love the idea of men taking care of themselves, it should be all round, not just to look smart or intelligent but to learn to love and respect your mind, your body what you eat, what you wear, your character and how you present yourself and that includes grooming too. That’s my philosophy.”
SG “To be beautiful inside and out. I know I am good in my heart and in my mind and I want to be more beautiful.”
Tell me about the watch?
SG “A watch is part of a man’s style, it’s like a fragrance, when you choose something it’s a part of you forever. For me when we sketch the watch it’s for a long time. I don’t like to change the watch. It is very important because it is the one piece, a masculine bracelet. It is a masculine bracelet because you change its band, you change its colour you maybe have a lot of watches. It depends with the season, the colour, clothes; sport, elegant, night, it is like jewels for men and it’s mainly a man obsession.”
DD “Some people like the watches for their mechanism, I love it for style, I don’t care about mechanism. It is a nice accessory for men. It’s sometimes cool, sometimes sophisticated, it’s possible to play with. If you want a sophisticated watch it is fine, you want the stones, plastic. It is possible to play a lot with the watch and act masculine. We have a sports watch too.” DG7+, LDG 5 classic.”
DG7+
Resuming the creative path that began in the world of men’s fine timepieces with the launch of its first collection of Haute Horologerie watches, Dolce&Gabbana presents the new DG7+.
Perfectly combining superb performance and aesthetics, the DG7+ was designed and engineered by the fashion maison, produced by the finest Swiss watch movement manufacturers, and assembled by Switzerland’s best watch-makers.
The creative power of the Dolce&Gabbana brand joins the finest production techniques of great artisan watch-makers to produce a Swiss-made object with impeccable style and outstanding quality.
DG7+ is available in two versions what will be sold in Dolce&Gabbana Boutiques in major cities around the world and for the very first time also online on the website www.dolcegabbanawatches.com.
DG7+ was designed for leisure time and comes with either a metal bracelet or a black rubber watch band.
The distinctive element of this particular watch, compared to other DG7 models, is the half-moon shaped calendar positioned at six o’clock on the satin-finish dial, which has a minute hand and one-fifth second hand, Arabic numerals for the hours, and lapped metal markers.
Motto:
SG “I do not want to be the richest corpse in the cemetery”
DD “Do not waste time thinking of things you did not do but what you can do”
Social Media:
SG “Personally I have Twitter and Instagram however the company is very active with all the social media outlets available. Social media is the now and the future.”
Gadgets:
SG “Both Apple and BlackBerry. We mix.”
Car:
SG “Porsche Boxter”
DD “Jaguar”
Best travel destination:
SG “Africa”
Best food:
DD “Pasta, Italian food. I love cooking
Pets:
SG “Three Labrador dogs, two males and one female. They live with me, during the day they stay in the office with me, there is Toto, Rosa is the female and the new one is Mimo.”
DD “I have one guest cat, it’s not mine, it’s my friends’ cat.”
TEXT: FRENNIE SEIER
.jpg)
Life Beyond Sport magazine is a pioneering publication that breaks through the traditional barriers of men’s lifestyle magazines by smoothly combining a man’s love of sport with his passion for the finer things in life. The magazine contains a range of features, interviews and photo-shoots that provide an exclusive insight into the sportsman’s lifestyle. Only in Life Beyond Sport will you find the biggest names from the worlds of Football, Tennis, Formula 1, Golf, Polo and more.
.jpg)
