Dolce & Gabbana Beauty is not shy about its ambitions to dominate the luxury designer cosmetics category.
From 2016-2021, Shiseido held control over the D&G Beauty licenses, but when they expired, the Italian fashion house decided to take the brand in-house. Between 2022 and 2024, the brand quickly scaled, bringing in more than 300 new employees under D&G Beauty, led by CEO Gianluca Toniolo. Toniolo, who is proud to say he was employee No. 1, came from LVMH, where he was formerly the country general manager of LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics in Italy. Most recently, D&G Beauty expanded to the U.S. via an exclusive retail partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue, where a collection of 11 products are sold on Saks.com and in select Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
While setting up the in-house brand through hiring, product development and global subsidiary offices was done rapidly, Toniolo described makeup as a marathon. Consider, then, that the brand sprinted to the start line before starting its true marathon race. With the team’s classic Italian sense of passion underscoring its ambitions, Toniolo said the brand earned $100 million in product sell-out in 2022 and plans to reach $300 million in product sell-out in 2024. In 2022, makeup comprised approximately 5% of the overall sales, but Toniolo plans to grow that to 30% in three to five years.
“Everything is possible because of the commitment of Stefano [Gabbana] and Domenico [Dolce],” said Toniolo. “This is not something I found in my previous experience with other fashion brands. Usually, [designer brands] consider the beauty category like the [younger sibling]. But they recognize the same importance within the brand as fashion, jewelry, etcetera.”
Glossy caught up with Toniolo to discuss the brand’s growth, its unique execution and its future growth plans.
What were the early strategic reasons for bringing D&G Beauty in-house?
“Bringing beauty in-house was a tough decision on one end, but it completely changed both the scale of our business and the perception of the Dolce & Gabbana beauty category. Stefano [Gabbana] and Domenico [Dolce} wanted to elevate the perception of the beauty category for Dolce & Gabbana to the same level as the other categories managed by the fashion house. The first [benefit and focus] was to defend our business in fragrances because we were mainly a fragrance business [then]. We managed to launch three new creations. The next step was to work big and play big in makeup because it is the natural extension of beauty for a fashion brand. Our brand is joyful so that you can express [yourself] through makeup immediately, allowing people to cross the category from fashion to beauty — and we wanted to create a strong heritage and link with the fashion of Dolce & Gabbana. And [finally], we wanted to connect even more with the young generations like Gen Z and Gen Alpha. These were the three major strategic goals from the beginning.
If [a designer brand] only works in beauty through fragrance, you are not considered a well-established or big player in the beauty space. You need at least two [categories], like fragrances and makeup, to be considered at the top of [designer] brands. And this is exactly our goal.”
How are you planning to grow D&G Beauty now?
“We have 80 SKUs right now, and we’re going to add another 80 SKUs — by 2025, we will have a complete line of 350 skus. We want to become a two-axis brand [between fragrance and makeup]. But I also used to say a two-and-a-half axis brand because our intention is also to attack the skin-care category by the first quarter of 2025. But we won’t enter through the anti-aging category because a fashion brand does not have legitimacy — anti-aging is much more about research and results through laboratories. But now, we use many Italian ingredients in our makeup and fragrances that could be used in skin care as skin beautifiers or well-aging. … As for [the business], in 2023, we reached the biggest number ever in the history of D&G Beauty in terms of operating profit.”
How are you positioning D&G Beauty apart from other designer beauty brands?
“The secret of the success of a brand is when you can harmonize all the categories that represent the brand. And this happens when you have the same founders and creators behind the different categories, which is not exactly what happens now. For example, Dior has Maria Grazia Chiuri for the [women’s] fashion category and Peter Phillips leading the cosmetics. In this scenario, the vision may not be exactly the same. A major point of difference for us is that we have Stefano and Domenico leading and managing the creativity behind all our creations. All the decisions are made by Stefano, Domenico and myself. We’re not going to take 10 meetings to decide how many samples to put in a box to send to Sephora or Saks Fifth Avenue.
All our products are benefit-driven, which is not what often happens with designer brands. On one hand, we played by the indie brand rules. On the other hand, we add luxury and elegance to the packaging and the DNA of a fashion brand. We think we are the only designer brand able to do that. The second point of difference is that we offer a wardrobe of makeup looks similar to fashion, which indie brands cannot do.”
