B E A U T Y A N D T H E B R A N D: Comparing Brands

Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury industry fashion house. The company was started by Italian designers Domenico Dolce (born 13 August 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily) and Stefano Gabbana (born 14 November 1962 in Milan). The two met in Milan in 1980 and worked for the same fashion house.By 1982, they had started their first fashion consulting studio and, in 1985, they showed their first women’s collection in Milan, winning national acclaim.

The Dolce&Gabbana Make-up line is a modern classic range of must-have products for eyes, lips, face and nails.The collection is inspired by the Dolce&Gabbana woman who is always looking for the perfect look each day.

Dolce & Gabbana are well known for their suggestive advertisements in which they frequently portray sexual scenes with men and female. It seems many of their original consumers are immune to their sexual content however, some of the society feel their ads suggest rape. Many of their ads also portray gender stereotypes meaning the men are very dominant and indicating the submissiveness of women.
Both brands, Calvin Klein and D&G both seem to indicate that sex sells and continues to produce their suggestive ads.

Other designer brands such as Armani and Burberry both use sex to sell their products, again using woman as sexual objects in order to model a certain product and the men as the dominant role.

Above, an ad from Armani, sexual like the others but unique. They have created something very different compared to other designer brands by using same sex couples within their ads in a seductive way.

An example of one of Burberrys ads, you wouldn't think they was actually advertising perfume? In this image, they show Rosie Huntington-Whitely in nothing but their iconic trench coat.

Below are various websites from designer brands whom produce make-up products, each website is set out differently.

Ck One cosmetics is reasonably new and I found that there products are either sold the Debenhams website or you can find them on the official Calvin Klein website, however I found the website extremely hard to manage and find my way. It also seems when finding the products, you can only browse. I could not find any sort of pricing here or a section where you can purchase.

Whereas within the Dolce & Gabbana website, their make-up products had a different website to the official D&G website where they sell their designs. The difference between CK website and D&G's is how easy it is to find the D&G products, it is set out in a way where you can easily find each product for eyes, lips, face, etc. Again, with Armani, their website was very similar. Easy to search and browse. Both very appealing websites, with images of the products and flattering colours.

The Calvin Klein website is appealing, but again as stated above, difficult to find products and hard to manage the website. However, they do have a section in which they separate each product that fits into their 'slogan' Therefore, you have 'Look Real' products, 'Define Yourself' and 'Add intensity' products!

All being born from designer brands, you would think every product would be very pricey...Well since comparing prices I have found that Ck One Colour cosmetics is a very affordable brand and fits to anyones budget. Where as D&G and Armani can be very dear, for example a lipstick costing £26. Unless you have that kind of money, I'm sure many make-up consumers would rather spend their money on a few lipsticks for £26! Where as a Ck One lipstick costs £13! Thats half the price. That could seem expensive to your typical high street makeup consumer, but compared to the designer brands it is so much cheaper.