Dolce and Gabbana want to leave their brand to the Dolce family once they're gone

Having previously claimed that they did not want the Dolce & Gabbana brand to continue operating after their departure, designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have now announced that they would like the Dolce family to take over in their stead. 

"We would love to give the family our jobs," Vogue Business was told by Gabbana, who established D&G with Dolce in 1985. Members of the Dolce family came together this fall to discuss the company's future. 

The announcement signals a turnaround in the brand's succession plans, as in April 2018 Gabbana made it clear that the company's continuation after its founders' deaths was out of the question. "Once we're dead, we're dead. I don't want a Japanese designer to start designing Dolce & Gabbana," he told Italian daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

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The Dolce family already has a significant level involvement in the company. Domenico's parents, for example, moved from Sicily to Milan in order to help the duo launch D&G. 

On top of this, his 54-year-old brother Alfonso is the company's CEO, while his sister Dora (64) is responsible for research and development for the brand's ready-to-wear line. Domenico's nephews and nieces also work at the company, including Giuseppina Cannizzaro – head of haute couture – and her brother Christian, who is in charge of shoes and accessories.

Domenico Dolce (61) and Stefano Gabbana (57) each own 40% of D&G, with the remaining stake belonging to the Dolce family, via Alfonso and Dora. 

The idea would therefore be to pass the company on to the Dolce family and not to sell it under any circumstances. The company "is like our child," said Gabbana. "You are a mother, and you cannot sell your children. We got lucky. We don't want to become the richest people in the cemetery," he added. 

D&G currently employs 5,500 people around the world. In its most recently reported fiscal year (2018/19), the company managed a 4.6% increase in revenues, which totalled 1.35 billion euros, despite problems in China, where the brand was boycotted following the publication of comments and a video that were deemed to be racist.