Dolce & Gabbana Lands On Fifth Avenue With A New Flagship

Top Sicilian designer D&G plays host at its new Fifth Ave location as a Flagship store. Domenico Dolce: “We furnished it like it was our home, going back and forth between Milan and New York. A boutique, yes, but with many suggestive homely niches. The antique baroque couches taken from a Sicilian dwelling. Here, on Fifth Avenue, in the middle of the city that runs and never stops, three floors full of trunks. Objects which evoke memories of a less frenetic gone by era, but also a place of dreams, the vessels of belongings of a lifetime: an invitation to slow down and enjoy all of this, and restore its meaning. In London, in the Bond Street store we even included a barber, In Milan we have a shoe smith, boutiques with that antique feel in which accuracy and luxury reside. We try to create an atmosphere where all of this can be appreciated, against the speed, the frenetic rush of the hyper-technology, of twitter. Relaxing, going back to enjoying what is beautiful. To appreciate the attention to detail, the perfection of the craftsman which goes against that immediacy which makes everything the same, that loss of the sense of elegance which we have been dragging with us since the Eighties.” Stefano Gabbana: “Its exciting to land on Fifth Avenue. Its certainly not our first American boutique, we have many stress, but its an imposing challenge, the biggest investment we have ever made. Extremely important, and not in terms of turnover. I’m not saying that money its not important to us, we’ve made plenty. One day, Domenico and I won’t be around anymore, and as we often say we have no interest in being the wealthiest people in the cemetery. We want to be remembered as the happiest.” Dolce & Gabanna represents over One Billion Euros a year in revenue, 3500 employees, and 220 stores worldwide (67 in the USA). With Fifty Billion Euros D&G leads the Italian fashion system but not without some challenges countryside. “We are missing the stimuli to develop craftsmanship, that quality, that know how which is only Italian. We need to invest in that, where no one can surpass us.” The State however want that Dolce&Gabbana pay more tax: the high court has declared that the company must pay taxes, hundreds of Euros on certain activities which they transferred abroad: ”We continue to believe we have behaved correctly” Dolce replies “there’s another court we can appeal to, we’ll see.” 1600 square meters on three floors. Instead of the usual black walls, White Carrara Marble. 25 years ago. “We were there, in front of the Tower Records store, which no longer exists. Broadway on the corner with 14th street, with our eyes wide open towards this incredible humanity. That is where the idea of street life was born: while on that pavement we designed an entire collection.”