How lucky were the students of Central Saint Martins when, on Monday afternoon and evening, they enjoyed the pleasure - and indeed privilege - of an up close and personal pow-wow with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. First, the designers, who flew in from Milan specially, spent time in the MA fashion studio where they talked through individual student’s designs. Next, they were interviewed by Sarah Mower in front of an audience of 200. Given the time restraints on today’s multi-tasking fashion titans, that’s quite something.
Some things came out that were less well known than others.
1)** Domenico Dolce was born and raised in the small town of Polizzi Generosa, nestling in the Sicilian hillside**
None other than Martin Scorcese’s paternal grandparents also hailed from there. Signor Dolce, whose father was a tailor and whose mother ran a clothing store, couldn’t wait to get away from the place, just as young men with ambition are wont to do. It was Stefano Gabbana, who comes from Milan, who later insisted on plundering that heritage which has since become the single most important element of the brand’s DNA.
2)** The pair - who were a couple in real as well as fashion life before splitting amicably a couple of years ago now – met in a Milanese nightclub**
Stefano Gabbana, a graphic designer at the time, tells it like this. ‘I said: “How will I know who you are?” He said: “I’m the one dressed like a priest.”’ Well, it was the 1980s, the era of the peacock male, and so perhaps that wasn’t so surprising.
- More generally, however - and his great friend’s penchant for mining the ecclesiastical wardrobe aside - boys in Milan were mostly wearing: ‘A Moncler jacket, Levi’s, a Lacoste T-shirt, Timberland boots and Ray-Bans.’ Well, it was the 1980s, Part Two.
- A young designer starting out on his career will get nowhere, Domenico Dolce said, unless they are brave
A case in point… When Dolce & Gabbana (the company) was a mere twinkle in the designers’ eyes, he was seeking work in Milan, got hold of the Italian equivalent of the Yellow Pages, and, aiming high, gave Giorgio Armani a call. ‘Hi, my name’s Domenico. Can I speak to Giorgio?’ Domenico, bold as brass, said. ‘Yes,’ a gruff voice that came on the phone answered (and it was he). ‘Hello, my name’s Domenico,’ he said again. ‘I want to show you my book…’ Sadly – or perhaps happily as things eventually turned out - it was not to be but that if-you-don’t-ask-you-don’t-get spirit was at least partly responsible for making Dolce & Gabbana the powerhouse it is today.
- More than a quarter of a century on, Stefano Gabbana said, the company would be nothing without its identity – its roots in Sicilian family life and culture, its debt to 1950s Italian cinema and its stars and Hollywood’s Golden Age, its obsession with women of all ages and, in particular, their bras. ‘Your identity is very important. If you lose your identity you’re nothing.’ And so, it’s not about skirt lengths, about trends or being ‘cool’. Instead: ‘The most difficult thing for a designer is to find a style. That’s something that comes out of love. Everything we did came out of love, the love of fashion, the love for each other. It wasn’t easy but the power of love saved us,’ Stefano Gabbana, every bit the romantic, said.