Dolce & Gabbana is a high-end fashion house started by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Domenico Dolce, was born on August 13, 1958, in Polizzi Generosa, Italy, and Stefano Gabbana was born on November 14, 1962, in Venice, Italy. As students, Gabbana studied graphic design, but Dolce received a fashion education, studying in Venice and working in the small clothing factory his family owned.
In 1980, the duo met when they worked at the same atelier in Venice. They began to do freelance design in 1982, when they began doing business together. When their first collection was shown in 1986, it received acclaim from around the globe. Four years later, they revealed their premiere menswear collection and opened a women's boutique in Milan.
Dolce & Gabbana's first store in the United States opened in March 1995 in the upscale shopping mecca "the Galleria" in Houston's fashion district. Since then, a boom in interest in their clothes has called for openings of their boutiques in other major cosmopolitan cities all over the world. Their boutiques have become a symbol of high fashion and couture.
Dolce and Gabbana announced on the 20th February 2005 that they would split up after 19 years. Stefano Gabbana said that "This is a love split, not a business split,". Moreover he said "Domenico and I are still very good friends and, as for the working relationship, we are still very much together. Business, in fact, has never been better."
Dolce & Gabbana are very popular for their designs in the Hollywood industry; they have designed clothes for Madonna, Monica Bellucci, Ayumi Hamasaki, Isabella Rossellini and Kylie Minogue amongst others.
