Dolce&Gabbana grows and experiments with colours, cuts and movements

"The year 2025 was very positive for both watches and jewellery and for the year that has just begun we have a lot of new products in all categories and with different price positioning - not quality, mind you -": Walter Veneruz, head of the Jewellery and Watches division of the Dolce&Gabbana maison, wanders with his (contagious) enthusiasm among the display cases set up in the boutique on Via Montenapoleone, close to those of Bulgari, Vuitton and Tiffany, where the watch collections were presented this week (see article opposite). Dolce&Gabbana confirmed that they are following different paths and strategies from those of many other high-end maisons, even for jewellery and watches, categories to which Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been dedicated for less than 15 years: first they consolidated their presence in women's and men's ready-to-wear (the brand was founded in 1985 in Milan), then they began to delineate a stylistic universe for this segment too. "Working with gentlemen designers is a daily challenge, I would say the most stimulating that has happened to me in my career," says Veneruz. "In the world of watchmaking and partly in that of jewellery, it is difficult to find someone who thinks 'out of the box', as they say in English. It is easier to hear the answer that a stylistic or technical request is inadmissible, that a design or project cannot be transformed into a watch or jewel... Why? Because it has always been done a certain way... Not with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana'. The novelties on display in Milan do not fit into the haute couture jewellery: these collections are presented once a year together with the haute couture and haute couture fashion shows (see the Jewellery Special in Moda24 of 6 December). "Over the years, the designers have created a greater osmosis between the most exclusive pieces and those of fine jewellery, which arrive in selected jewellers around the world and in the boutique in Via Spiga, the only one dedicated only to Dolce&Gabbana jewellery and watches," adds Veneruz. "The fil rouge with fine jewellery is the commitment we all put into the search for the most beautiful stones, from which Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana often start to give free rein to their idea of jewellery. Of course, the exponential increases in gold and silver complicate everything, but the added value of the Dolce&Gabbana collections lies above all in creativity and craftsmanship. This also applies to watchmaking, where Swiss-origin technical know-how and exclusive movements merge with an idea of timepieces, for men and women, that is unique in the market".