Dolce & Gabbana has a new billion-dollar centerpiece. The Italian label’s beauty division cleared €1 billion—roughly $1.12 billion—in annual wholesale revenue after sales rose 14 percent last year.
According to Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, the business is at more than three times its 2022 level, when the fashion house made the costly decision to take direct control of its fragrances and cosmetics.
Now, with double-digit growth expected to continue in 2026, the brand is preparing to go even bigger.
The next phase stretches far beyond the fragrance counter. Dolce & Gabbana plans to expand its bestselling scents into more markets, broaden makeup distribution, and build out a full skincare line.
It also wants to expand its network to 50 to 70 standalone beauty boutiques over the next three years, targeting the United States, India, Brazil, Mexico, and the Middle East.
The Americas already generate about 55 percent of the division’s revenue, with the U.S. responsible for roughly 60 percent of that regional total.
The strategy represents a major shift for a house long defined by black lace, corsetry, animal prints and an unmistakably Sicilian sense of excess. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana founded the company in Milan in 1985, then broke through internationally as their clothes became fixtures on runways, red carpets and concert stages.
Madonna helped cement that pop-culture connection by hiring the duo to design costumes for her 1993 Girlie Show tour. Decades later, she returned to front the relaunch campaign for The One, bringing the relationship full circle as beauty became one of the company’s most important businesses.
“We are doing very well, we are satisfied with our numbers,” Dolce & Gabbana Beauty CEO Gianluca Toniolo said to the outlet.
The executive described the company as “a rare fly” in a beauty industry facing weaker forecasts, U.S. tariffs, volatile exchange rates and ongoing international conflicts. Light Blue and the Devotion line helped power the latest results.
My Devotion also gained unexpected momentum in the Middle East, where Toniolo said it ranked among Sephora’s five top-selling fragrances across the Gulf in November.
That growth gives Dolce & Gabbana some breathing room at a complicated moment. The wider group reported a 2 percent revenue decline to €1.86 billion for the year ending March 31, leaving beauty to offset weaker demand in the core fashion operation.
The expansion also follows years of reputational damage, including outrage over the founders’ 2015 comments about IVF and same-sex families and the fallout from a widely condemned 2018 campaign in China.
That crisis led to a canceled Shanghai runway show, retailer pullbacks, and a public apology from the designers.
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