Dolce & Gabbana Call Fast Fashion Collaborations 'Cheap'

If you love designer collaboration-made leopard print dresses, you'll have to hold onto your vintage Cavalli for H&M pieces -- because Dolce & Gabbana won't be collaborating anytime soon.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana opened up in Women's Wear Daily, chatting about their past success, their recent tax evasion debacle, the shuttering of D&G and being young at heart.

They also talked about the dearth of real, quality fashion in today's market. Speaking of which...

S.G.: [laughs] I ask him if he goes to mass to design collections...

D.D.: It's classic elegance. Elegance is always beautiful, contemporary and timeless. It doesn't have to be about the latest trend, or from a signature brand. Its forever. Recently, it's all "trusciume" [in Sicilian, cheap, trashy] — there's no quality, these fast-fashion companies churning out looks. People thought it was cool, but it's cheap. You can't expect quality at 20 euros [$27]. It's like good codfish at 5 euros [$6.70] -- how can it be? But it's not a matter of price. Elegance is intellectual; it's about good taste, the cut, proportions, quality, how you carry yourself.

So H&M? Target? Kohl's? We recommend you don't come a callin'. Dolce & Gabbana clothes are reserved for those with deeper pockets, girls like Felicity Jones, Britney Spears and Scarlett Johansson.

But even if you can't expect any black lace, white eyelet and red silk from 2012's collabs, there is much to look forward to: Marni is next up at H&M, set to debut in March, and Jason Wu will be collaborating with Target starting February 5.

No bright and European enough for ya? There's always Versace's second outing for H&M, a cruise collection available to European buyers only on January 19.

Of course, none are the iconic Dolce & Gabbana. Read more of the designers' interview at WWD.com.

Comments

[dtroppy]

04:46 PM on 12/20/2011

That's funny because when I think of Dolce & Gabbana I think of cheap and tacky but that's just me...

[fredimessina]

02:51 PM on 12/20/2011

Good luck with that. I think their D&G line were their bread and butter. Look around. Nobody is buying $5000.00 clothes in this economy.

[tyrant510]

02:16 PM on 12/20/2011

I think the fast fashion collaborations with high end labels are right for certain brands. For instance, it makes sense with H&M + Comme des Garçons, but it wouldn't work with say, Gucci. Dolce & Gabbana are smart. With these comments and refusal to do fast fashion as well as their recent dissolution of their lower D&G line, they are re-establishing themselves as a true luxury house. Good business. A watered down brand never works.

[lefty81]

12:41 PM on 12/20/2011

Well, I guess D&G can afford to miss the customers who would pay a lower price for a fast fashion diffusion line they could put out. They only want people who can pay $5000 for silk pajamas. They're exclusive in that way, and it might come back to bite them in the butt........

[Hardyman1966]

12:37 PM on 12/20/2011

Good for them.  Donatella has done a fine job of further trashing a once-iconic House.  It's fit for a Kardashian in Vegas, basically.

[tyrant510]

02:18 PM on 12/20/2011

Um, but Versace has always been fit for 'a Kardashian in Vegas'.

[Hardyman1966]

02:24 PM on 12/20/2011

Yeah, he was a little Miami gaudy in his prime, but she's been steadily cheapening it ever since as a successor.

[usamade]

12:19 PM on 12/20/2011

I'll tell you what's cheap D&G. It's my D&G eyeglasses that were made in China and I paid a fortune for. They broke. That's what's cheap.

[tyrant510]

02:19 PM on 12/20/2011

They closed D&G earlier this year. They are focusing on Luxury.