Dolce & Gabbana reveals development plans for new beauty business

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Roberta HERRERA

Published
May 6, 2022

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s Italian luxury brand announced in February that it will bring the brand’s beauty and fragrance business back in-house, hitherto managed through licenses and valued at around €1 billion, by launching Dolce & Gabbana Beauty.

Alfonso Dolce will serve as the beauty company’s CEO and Gianluca Toniolo as COO. Toniolo explained the early steps in developing this new unit, following the launch of two spacious beauty corners in its Milan stores located at Via della Spiga and Via Montenapoleone. 
 

FashionNetwork.com: What was the concept behind the launch of these two beauty corners?

Gianluca Toniolo: We want to dedicate a significant amount of space to these product categories and not relegate them to a corner, as is often the case. The beauty corner in Via della Spiga covers 30 square meters with shop windows facing the street, and the beauty corner in Via Montenapoleone covers 34 square meters, each equipped with two staff members: one salesclerk who specializes in makeup and another dedicated to fragrances.
 
FNW: Will there be beauty corners in all your stores?

GT: Our goal is to launch them in the most important stores of our main markets. In certain regions, such as the Middle East and Asia, we are looking at opening dedicated D&G beauty stores.
 
FNW: How are your teams structured and where are they located?

GT: We will soon be moving to a new building in Milan, located in Via Kramer. Currently, we have 120 employees. But our goal is to grow our team. I am in the process of recruiting a young, international team.
 
FNW: What are your goals in terms of sales?

GT: We are only at the beginning of this adventure! We want to deliver a powerful message. This project was also created to establish strong ties with the fashion house through this product category and to turn Dolce & Gabbana into a lifestyle brand. It is worth mentioning that we are the first Italian fashion group to directly operate beauty.

 
FNW: What is your price positioning?

GT: We are of course positioned in the high-end market segment, but we are going to target different age groups to also appeal to younger consumers, who have shown a renewed interest in perfumes. 

FNW: What are your development plans?

GT: Our development plan is quite robust, featuring an aggressive launch schedule. Next year we will be carrying out strategic fragrance launches. Our goal is to redevelop 80% of the fragrance portfolio within two years. We also plan to launch new makeup products in the second half of 2023.