Interview: Dolce and Gabbana on courting China, couture and those controversial baby comments
After 30 years together in the fashion business, the creative marriage between Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana remains strong, the Italian designers tell fashion editor Jing Zhang
"Nothing has changed! We fight, discuss, we are the same, we are like yin and yang," says an outspoken Stefano Gabbana, of having reached the 30-year mark in his partnership with Domenico Dolce, looking over at his business partner and best friend with a grin.
"Now, we are just a little bit more old," chips in Dolce, "Now, we're old bastards!"
They burst into laughter.
Since breaking into fashion in 1985, with less than US$2,000 to their name, Dolce and Gabbana, who used to have a personal partnership as well as a professional one, have become two of the business' most renowned names while having managed to keep an independent company on an even keel in a turbulent industry.
"I think it's a very complicated moment in fashion," says Dolce, who, today, is very talkative. "Things are changing a lot. I don't know what is the future [of fashion]. We are not a very fresh label, we are not avant garde, but [as a designer] if you try to find a personality, have a memory and have a style, and work around this, this is forever."
The duo, tanned and relaxed, are ensconced in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong. They are surrounded by an entourage and, outside, there is a noticeable security presence (after all, it has been but a few days since they made a number of high-profile enemies - including Elton John and Madonna - by disparaging as "synthetic" babies born through in vitro fertilisation and calling them "sperm selected from a catalogue", in an interview with an Italian magazine. But more on that later).