Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have temporarily closed their nine luxury shops in Milan and published a letter in the international press in protest against what they describe as 'unfair accusations' by the Italian tax authorities.
Last month the pair were found guilty in the Italian courts of evading around €400m (£342m) on a €1bn (£860m) business deal which routed sales of their D&G and Dolce & Gabbana brands via a holding set up in Luxembourg in 2004. They were also ordered to pay €500,000 (£430,000) each in fines, and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail, both of which are currently under review.
Over the weekend, the windows of the Dolce and Gabbana boutiques in Milan, where the business is based, displayed the message 'Closed for Indignation' alongside a newspaper article quoting a local councillor as saying the label should not be allowed to show its next collection in the city's open spaces as 'we don't need to be represented by tax evaders'.
Dolce and Gabbana also took out a series of full page advertisements in newspapers across Europe, including the UK, reproducing a letter stating: 'We are no longer willing to tolerate unfair accusations on behalf of the Italian Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police) and the Agenzia delle Entrate (Internal Revenue Service), attacks from the Public Prosecutor and the media assault we have been subjected to.'
The letter goes on: 'Finally, indignant with how we are being treated by the city of Milan, we have decided to close all our shops in the city (a total of nine retail stores) for the next three days starting today. We were born in Milan and have always been very grateful to this city. However, it must also be said that in the last 30 years we have given a great deal to this city: prestige and international visibility, jobs and economic development.'
Attached to the letter is a table showing the 'important contributors' to the city of Milan according to 2005 incomes, with Dolce and Gabbana in fourth and fifth place respectively.
The designers have strenuously denied any wrongdoing, and are appealing against the tax judgement. They say they will pay their 250 staff while the stores are closed and will continue working in the fashion industry, although they say they are 'tired of being subjected to continuous slander and insults, which are detrimental to the serenity of our work place and distracting us from our work as designers'.
