Dolce & Gabbana To Cease Production of D&G?

[IAmLordZen]

Stronge rumours from the world of fashion this morning. Fashion industry bible WWD reports that "according to sources" Dolce & Gabbana is considering incorporating D&G into its mainline collection.

‘[Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana] want to focus on one single brand, Dolce & Gabbana,’ says one Italian retailer, who requested anonymity.

This is a particularly unexpected development as, WWD reports, the secondary line's profits are as fit and healthy as a white-trunked David Gandy in that Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue aftershave ad (okay, WWD didn't
 put it quite like that; but the D&G does make over £326 million...)

Over the past couple of years, Grazia Daily has rather fallen in love with D&G (which was first founded in 1994, fashion-fact fans) and its younger, more contemporary, and waay cheaper take on Dolce & Gabbana's timelessly foxy aesthetic. From classic corset or black lace dresses, to this winter's Aztec knits teamed with floral print chiffons, the D&G label has undoubtedly been getting stronger and stronger of late, so this new revelation is rather confusing.

But, as, the anonymous retailer concludes; 'Domenico and Stefano are clever, though, so they must have thought this out and consider it a wise strategic move.' 
True, dat.

a link to the wwd article
graziadaily

 

[LagerfeldBoy]

Oh god, all these rumors lately are killing me. Personally, I hope this is absolutely false. I'm a a HUGE fan of each line and wouldn't want to combine both of them. What I love about both is that they each target two different customers and actually balance each other out. It showcases variety in what Domenico & Stefani do.

 

[Petit Lucille]

Shockers are by the dozen this season... No more D&G? Or rather that they won't be the head-designers no more? I highly doubt that in this world a profitable brand just close.

 

[TianSoFine]

Oh my, the fashion industry is turning upside down.
I've never been a huge fan of this line, but it's always interesting to see what they come up with and it's just a fun collection to see.
I've D&G turns out lots of money, though. Does it? Anyone know?

 

[ChrissyM]

i wonder if the plan is just to design one line and just adjust the price range of the clothing to include lower-priced D&G-type items? the article makes it seem like there's some sort of strategy involved...

it doesn't make sense to just shutter a profitable line...

how are the profits of the main line? I wonder if this rumored move might be a ploy to revitalize the aesthetic there? i don't know... just shooting in the dark a bit...

 

[ChrissyM]

Oh my, the fashion industry is turning upside down.
I've never been a huge fan of this line, but it's always interesting to see what they come up with and it's just a fun collection to see.
I've D&G turns out lots of money, though. Does it? Anyone know?

well, the snippet in the first post reports that they pull in £326 million, which i think would relate to roughly $650 million

 

[Label Basher]

Are they still being investigated for tax fraud or whatever it was? Could this have something to do with it.

 

[thedanae]

Front page on tFS: No More D&G? (Forum Buzz)

 

[Crying Diamonds]

I hope they cease D&G, or at least stop showing; the collections get more and more hideous every season.

 

[Street_a_Licious]

probably, but D&G sells like hotcakes. it'd be such a dumb decision to shut down D&G, it's like killing the one animal on your farm that sh!ts money.

and that whole 'incorporating D&G into their mainline' sounds like bullcrap to me. fashion houses do diffusion lines to water down their brand to make money, without touching the mainline, which is the 'prestige' project. once you water down the 'prestige' brand, it'll be hard to get that back.

 

[tarsha]

D&G Will Die; Long Live Dolce & Gabbana

When Dolce & Gabbana said recently that it is folding its younger, less expensive D&G brand into its high-end line, many retailers were bewildered. D&G's success has at times overshadowed the more deluxe Dolce & Gabbana. And the prevailing wisdom is that a luxury brand loses cachet when it offers cheaper wares.

The danger, this theory goes, is that $300 Dolce & Gabbana dresses hanging beside $3,000 dresses with the same label will leave shoppers confused about what the brand stands for. "The Dolce super-label has sublime value," which could be diminished in consumers' minds, says luxury-consumption consultant Jim Taylor.

But there's another way to look at this wager: Consumers—savvier and more confident than ever about fashion—no longer pay as much attention to narrow tiers of brands. They've been mixing and matching expensive and cheap clothes for years. Meanwhile, luxury brands can seem cluttered with different lines when what consumers really care about is the designers who stand behind them.

Indeed, Mr. Taylor this week advised a roomful of luxury-company executives that they are annoying high-end customers by creating tiers of brands. "Nothing upsets affluent consumers more than finding there are multibrand models for multiple levels of quality," he said at the American Express Luxury Summit in Park City, Utah. In other words, maybe Dolce & Gabbana has already been devalued simply by the existence of D&G.

Mr. Taylor argues that companies must choose between two strategies. Either they must go the way of Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren and "paint the earth" with multiple brand levels or they must "simply be sublime" and cater to the roughly 20% of luxury consumers who shop without regard to price.

wsj.com

 

[Niusity]

I hope this are rumors, I really like it.
And if they clore D&G what will happen to D&G Kids?

 

[LabelWhore4]

So, what about all those new D&G fragrances that came out a year or two ago? Some of them were pretty good.

 

[Karen0193]

I hope this isnt true, I like D&G clothing.

 

[Psylocke]

I only love D&G Underwear but there's never been much of a difference between D&G and Dolce&Gabbana underwear (not even in the price) so I don't care if it all goes under Dolce now.

And that article about D&G cheapening the brand...?! Isn't the sole purpose of diffusion lines to be more affordable for the masses and to gather a new clientele? What's so wrong about that? I'm sure designers all make much more money with their diffusion lines than with their runway collections. And I even think that someone who likes the stuff from a diffusion line is more likely to dream of buying something from the mainline once they get the chance to and can afford it. I would hate to think people are so snobbish to say they wouldn't buy anything from Dolce because D&G sucks or think Alexander McQueen was cheap because of McQ, etc.

 

[ZFashionBlog]

It's confirmed.
My info is from somebody who works at D&G.

Timing is still not clear...

 

[TianSoFine]

^^But the point of the diffusion line is to open it up to a different market of consumers, not shift the consumers of the main line over to the diffusion line. This is what's happening with Dolce, and customers are being lost to the D&G line.

And I don't think the point was that the ultra-rich ones are too snobbish for Dolce because D&G sucks, but rather because it's accessible for people who aren't so rich and lessens the superior+exclusive reputation of the label. I know some will disagree with me, but I think that most Dolce & Gabbana customers buy their clothing partially because of the high-end reputation. It's the same idea as some brands keeping their haute couture lines even if they aren't particularly profitable just for the exclusive reputation, if you get what I mean?

 

[KatherineCouture]

Oh no! I always liked D&G, it was always one of the more expected collections for me

 

[wangster]

same here.
and I always liked D&G Shows more, they were a lot more exciting and funny than the Dolce shows..
oh no

 

[TeeVanity]

oh my I always loved the line!