Domenico Dolce was born on 13 August 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, in the province of Palermo, Sicily. His father Saverio ran a tailor's shop, later converted into a clothing factory, and brought fashion magazines home from fabric-buying trips to Milan; his mother Rosaria had a sharp business sense. Dolce studied architecture in Palermo before enrolling, with his father's support, at the Istituto Marangoni in Milan, which he left before graduating. His ambition was to work for Armani.
In 1980, working for the designer Giorgio Correggiari, he met Stefano Gabbana. By 1982 the two had set up a design consultancy, and in October 1985 they made their runway debut in the New Talents show at Milano Collezioni with a women's collection inspired by Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani and the Sicilian women of his childhood. Their own show, "Real Women", followed in March 1986, and the first shop opened at 7 Via Santa Cecilia in Milan in 1987. In 1988 the company joined forces with Dolce Saverio, his father's manufacturing business in Legnano.
Within the partnership Dolce is the tailor: he drafts the patterns, builds the prototypes and runs the fittings. It was his idea to bring in the Sicilian photographer Ferdinando Scianna, whose black-and-white pictures defined the early image of the house. The slip-like "Sicilian dress", the corsetry, the black lace and the sharp men's tailoring all came out of this approach. Madonna's costumes for the Girlie Show tour (1993) made the pair internationally famous, and in 2012 they launched Alta Moda, their haute couture line, shown in Italian cities such as Taormina, Palermo and Naples.
Dolce and Gabbana made their relationship public in 1999 and separated as a couple in 2004 while continuing to design together. In 2013 an Italian court convicted both of tax evasion over a Luxembourg subsidiary; they were cleared on appeal in October 2014. In 2015 Dolce's remarks about IVF prompted a boycott call from Elton John. He remains co-creative director of the house.