The Dolce & Gabbana aesthetic is, at its heart, colourful, celebratory, sensual and unashamedly feminine — ideals that lend themselves to the worlds of beauty and make-up. So the brand’s decision to bring its beauty division in-house, rather than continuing to license it to different partners, makes perfect sense.
Nonetheless, it is the first Italian fashion house to do so, and assuming direct control of the production, sales and distribution of its own fragrance, make-up and, eventually, skincare products, is no small undertaking.
A change in strategy by former license partner, Shiseido, prompted the brand to pursue this new course, which represents a considerable investment and expansion of worldwide operations.
An entirely new legal entity, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, was officially launched on January 1, with headquarters in Milan. Under the leadership of Dolce & Gabbana’s president and chief executive Alfonso Dolce and Gianluca Toniolo, operating chief executive of Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, the new entity will apply the know-how, creativity and codes of the brand’s fashion, jewellery and homeware divisions to a new family of products.
“We are not creating something from scratch,” Toniolo tells The National. “We are just putting what Dolce & Gabbana has done for the past 35 years into the beauty category. We don’t need to do anything crazy.”
In doing so, it will realise an intention set out by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana when they first established their eponymous label more than 35 years ago.
“It was the dream of Stefano and Domenico from the very beginning, because when Dolce & Gabbana was born, it was in the minds of Stefano and Domenico to create a real fashion house, and beauty is a very important part of the fashion system. It is totally complementary. It is an important part of the lifestyles of our customers,” Alfonso Dolce says.
To make all this possible, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty has partnered with and become a shareholder in Intercos, a globally operating Italian company specialising in the development and production of beauty products. The new beauty division has already employed 177 people around the world, with plans to have up to 300 employees within nine months.
“This is real news for the beauty world,” Toniolo stresses. “Dolce & Gabbana is the first Italian company to bring the beauty category in-house. The category has a lot of entry barriers, both financial and manufacturing-wise, so the decision to bring it in-house was very courageous, but with a solid vision behind it.
“The big point of difference is if you look at other brands, the fashion division is completely out of the mindset of the beauty division — they are two separate entities, with two different creative directions.
"Here at Dolce & Gabbana, we are one brand, with different competencies and categories. It means the guidelines will drop directly from Mr Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, and this will allow us to speak, in the beauty category, in the same language as the other categories that Dolce & Gabbana is managing.”
It allows the brand to address a whole new group of customers.
“Beauty is an entry-level category — it’s a category that allows you to come into contact with your younger customers and for them to be contaminated by the brand,” says Toniolo.
“You can touch a lot of customers that might not be able to afford to buy a bag or something more expensive. But with €100 [$105] or €120, you can feel like you are part of the Dolce & Gabbana family.”
The focus this year is to develop the Dolce & Gabbana fragrance line. Since the release of its first perfume in 1992, the brand has created more than 100 scents — so it already has a solid standing in this category. But within the next two years, 80 per cent of the fragrance line will be completely new.
On the cards this year are a couple of “blockbuster fragrances for women”, including Q, which is currently being rolled out worldwide, with a Middle East launch slated for April.
An answer to Dolce & Gabbana’s popular men’s fragrance K, for king, the new Q, for queen, is crafted in Italy by perfumer Daphne Bugey, and combines notes of tart Sicilian lemon, blood orange, red cherry and jasmine. It is presented in a geometric bottle topped with a cherry red crown — a playful but artfully crafted nod to the crowns that so often accessorise the design duo’s fashion creations.
A second fragrance, backed by “a worldwide celebrity”, is due in September. This will be followed by make-up next year and skincare, where the focus will be on ingredients sourced in Italy, in keeping with the fashion brand’s deeply ingrained “Made in Italy” ethos.
The plans are ambitious and already moving quickly, despite a backdrop of global supply chain issues affecting many industries.
“Today, all the world knows about the shortage of materials, raw components, glass, etc,” says Toniolo. “I think supply chains all over the world are struggling with shortages. So we started this year with the perfect hurricane.
“Honestly, I will say that the vision Dolce & Gabbana had, to strike a deal, financial and industrial, with one of the major Italian companies operating worldwide, Intercos, allows us to work with them and to find solutions to these shortages. But for sure, we are struggling like everyone at this moment, with plastic, glass, paper and all other raw materials.”
Nonetheless, the duo are visibly excited about the prospects of this new division and the opportunities it presents. “We have the chance to speak to our consumers worldwide, in one language,” says Alfonso Dolce. “And that language is the Dolce & Gabbana DNA, the Dolce & Gabbana experience, the Dolce & Gabbana mindset of Italian style and craftsmanship.
“Domenico and Stefano started 38 years ago with one dream and today, thanks to all the people who have believed in them over the years, the dream is being given new life.”
MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs: 2018 Renault Koleos
Price, base: From Dh77,900
Engine: 2.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 170hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 233Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.3L / 100km
Inside%20Out%202
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EKelsey%20Mann%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%C2%A0Amy%20Poehler%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%2C%20Ayo%20Edebiri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RESULTS
%3Cp%3E%0D5pm%3A%20Al%20Maha%20Stables%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(Turf)%201%2C400m%0D%3Cbr%3EWinner%3A%20AF%20Alfahem%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%20(jockey)%2C%20Ernst%20Oetrel%20(trainer)%0D%3Cbr%3E5.30pm%3A%20Al%20Anoud%20Stables%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3EWinner%3A%20AF%20Musannef%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E6pm%3A%20Wathba%20Stallions%20Cup%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(PA)%20Dh70%2C000%20(T)%201%2C400m%0D%3Cbr%3EWinner%3A%20AF%20Rasam%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E6.30pm%3A%20Arabian%20Triple%20Crown%20Round%202%20%E2%80%93%20Group%203%20(PA)%20Dh%20300%2C000%20(T)%202%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3EWinner%3A%20Joe%20Star%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Helal%20Al%20Alawi%0D%3Cbr%3E7pm%3A%20Liwa%20Oasis%20%E2%80%93%20Group%202%20(PA)%20Dh300%2C000%20(T)%201%2C400m%0D%3Cbr%3EWinner%3A%20AF%20Alajaj%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E7.30pm%3A%20Dames%20Stables%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(TB)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C400m%0D%3Cbr%3EWinner%3A%20Silent%20Defense%2C%20Oscar%20Chavez%2C%20Rashed%20Bouresly%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
