Originally inspired by eclectic, thrift shop Bohemia, Dolce & Gabbana’s deeply coloured, animal prints have been described as "haute hippydom" taking inspiration in particular from Italy’s prestigious film history. "When we design it’s like a movie," says Domenico Dolce. "We think of a story and we design the clothes to go with it." They claim to be more concerned about creating the best, most flattering clothes than sparking trends, once admitting that they wouldn’t mind if their only contribution to fashion history was a black bra.

D&G trademarks include underwear-as-outerwear (such as corsets and bra fastenings), gangster boss pinstripe suits, extravagantly printed and embroidered coats, and black. Meanwhile their fetish-meets-femininity collections are always backed by powerful ad campaigns, like the black-and-white La Sicilia, featuring model Marpessa photographed by Ferdinando Scianna in 1987. But fundamentally they are known for making women look, quite simply, devastatingly sexy. "They find their way out of any black dress, any buttoned-up blouse," says Rossellini. "The first piece of theirs I wore was a white shirt, very chaste, but cut to make my breasts look as if they were bursting out of it."

Once dubbed the "Gilbert and George of Italian fashion", Dolce and Gabbana gave their fashion interests a musical turn in 1996, by recording their own single, in which they intoned the words "D&G is love" over a techno beat. Newer to the design game than other heavyweight Italian fashion houses such as Versace and Armani, the pair acknowledge that luck has played its part in their phenomenal success. By 1997, their company reported a turnover of ?00 million, prompting both designers to announce that they planned to retire by the age of 40 - a promise they happily did not keep.

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