Fashion names don't come much bigger than the Italian powerhouse of Dolce & Gabbana. But before this name was that name, it was just two names (if you follow) and they were the names of two Italian wannabe designers: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The pair met while working as assistants in a studio in Milan, and it wasn't long before they quickly discovered a shared love for the baroque and working together.

They started their label in 1982, but it wasn't until 1985 that the struggle for recognition paid off. It was an invitation to the Milano Colleziono Fashion Show, a showcase for new talents that boosted their profiles and their confidence, so much so that the following year saw their first independent women's ready-to-wear show, dubbed "Real Woman."

It's been a meteoric rise since then, and among the keys to their success has been D&G trademark features and styles. They like underwear-as-outerwear: putting corsets and bra fastenings on the outside. They like gangster-boss style pinstripe suits that Al Capone might have favored, plushly printed and embroidered coats and more than just a sprinkling of black.

The main secret to their success (if you can call common knowledge a secret) is the way that they make women look fantastically sexy. The clothes they make for women are always about hotness and emotion. 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."

D&G and Madonna: Sunglasses To Die For

Perhaps it was this filmic way of designing that drew them to Madonna, who's famously now working with the brand. They were friends already, to be honest, but what kept them apart, according to the boys, were concerns that business would ruin the friendship. It doesn't seem to have done, judging by the results, and the material girl is looking to help them with new sunglasses designs.

Accessories like sunglasses have helped this brand along as much as they have all the others. Sunglasses like the bold and beautiful 6019s" for women and the more restrained 2168s for men might be poles apart stylistically, but both bear the signature touches of this amazing design pair.

Likewise their ads have always helped to gee sales along, mixing fetish, femininity and the fanciful with a dreamy, surreal erotic tone and high art pretensions—and sometimes controversy. But they've always been unapologetic about such tactics, and probably always will be.

Perhaps it was their arty interests that earned them the tag, "Gilbert and George of Italian fashion." They tried a musical turn in 1996, by recording their own single, telling us that "D&G is love" over a techno beat. They might as easily have sung, "D&G" is money. Turnover in 1997 was around $600 million. They joined the game later than other heavyweight Italian fashion houses like Versace and Armani, but with hard work and luck they've reached the same dizzy heights. So well have they done that they once planned to retire by the age of 40 - a promise that, happily, they did not keep.