Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in a new interview.
On Madonna
Do you owe your big breakthrough to Madonna?
STEFANO GABBANA Yes. To her. She has helped us to become who we are today.
DOMENICO DOLCE We had all her records. We had gone to see her perform in Torino and other locations. We would say to each other: just imagine if one day she chose to wear one of our creations? Three months later we saw a picture of her published on The Herald Tribune. She was at a Jean Paul Gaultier party in Paris wearing a black crochet sweater inspired by Italian’s southern tradition. We couldn’t believe it
Did you then try to contact her?
GABBANA She came to us. We had a little room in New York we would use as a PR office which a Vietnamese boy was in charge of. Madonna’s assistant got in touch and said she was going to appear at the premiere of her film Truth or Dare and that she would have loved
a bodice encrusted with coloured stones, a man’s jacket and thigh-highs.
She showed up at the New York Truth or Dare event and the next thing you know she was featured on every single major international publication, next to a photo of one of our catwalk shows. That shot of hers was literally everywhere globally.
DOLCE Then the movie came out and one of our friends who works as a restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art called us to let us know that in the American trailer of the movie there was a scene in which a beaming Madonna says something like: “ See I get what I want *snaps finger*, I wanted a Dolce and Gabbana shirt and Warren immediately got it for me”. We just couldn’t believe it. We thought he was pulling a prank on us. When the movie opened in Milan we were the last to go and watch it, frightened at the idea that they were all in fact just poking fun
But that line was actually there ...
DOLCE Yes and it just so happened that after months of seeing her wearing our clothes we finally asked her out for dinner.
Who made the phone call? Stefano or Domenico?
DOLCE No we just wrote to her. What we actually did was to dictate a letter to somebody who then translated it for us. What kind of language could have we used on the phone? At least when you’re physically with the person you can overcome the language barrier through hand gestures, but on the phone?
Finally dinner in New York ….
GABBANA Restaurant on the 17th between 7th and 8th. I was sweating badly due to the emotional situation. My idol! Luckily you could still smoke in restaurants back then and I smoked a cigarette after the other
DOLCE To start off she subjected us to the Proust Questionnaire. She wanted to know everything about us. She was instantly crazy for us and we were immediately crazy for her. We ended up on the dance floor and then we went to her apartment
How did you communicate with her?
DOLCE Gesticulating. But she does speak a little bit of Italian, luckily.
She loves Neorealism and she is used to watching the old films in the original language. Visconti, Pasolini, Rossellini. She just knows everything. She’s such an extraordinary woman. Still to this very day, after all these years, you just can’t help but feel in awe of her presence. She’s a type of person you constantly find yourself learning new things from.
She is shrewd, cultured and she knows everything about Italy. She is very Italian. But when it comes to business she’s American to the marrow. She ‘s got such a drive and an incredible determination. She was born three days apart from me in August 1958, has sold 300m albums, she’s had everything from life, yet when you see her rehearse a dance routine with her choreographer, she’s just there listening, paying attention, obeying and staying in line like a disciplined student. Humble. Terrific.
How is she as a client?
GABBANA The ideal client. Very clear ideas.
If she wants something she will also specify the colour tonality.
On Gaga
And among the many things they touch on in their interview there's also space for a brief Lady Gaga mention. Going back to what needs to be done during these turbulent global times in order to restore growth and a sense of social and cultural vitality they are asked about their ideas on how Italy in particular could re-emerge from the slump:
DOLCE Italy should go back to investing into Beauty. What we have instead been witnessing lately is a great sense of loss in the style and good taste department.
GABBANA Obviously it isn't a problem exclusively ascribable to Italy. It is something happening in society at large. Why is Lady Gaga successful? Because there's somebody who likes her. I am not suggesting we should acquiesce to the notion of such a trend existing in the first place, quite the contrary in fact, it is though an issue that needs to be registered
You don't like Lady Gaga?
GABBANA No we don't. But she is the mirror of the times and therefore we must acknowledge the fact. Why people like her? Why does she have many followers? What does she represent? One should be asking themselves the question: how comes she is so successful?
And what is your own answer to that?
GABBANA She is the expression of an era of decadence. Even more so considering she hasn't created a single thing yet.
But you too seem to be the embodiment of excess
DOLCE Well wait a second. In Lady Gaga's case there's absolutely no excess whatsoever. What you have there is a girl in drags. Excess is synonymous with courage, eccentricity and a desire to explore. Putting costumes on is something different. It entails a form of hiding oneself, not showing one's face. What she does is take on an identity which isn't her own. She is not the only one of course. I am not on Facebook but I am aware about it and how it works. There are people who present themselves with a mask on which isn't theirs. Made up personal stories and entire existences counterfeited. Who are you? Why do you feel the need to make up a whole other life from scratch? I am a bald man, putting a wig on would not constitute the solution to my problem, now would it? It just wouldn't make sense.
Translated from:
true fashion icon.
she stanned so hard during the BTW BALL in Milan
