Stefano Gabbana quotes:

The first thing I do when I wake up is take a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, and vitamins, and then I look at my dogs. I have three dogs, Rosa, Toto, and Mimmo, all Labradors.

I drive around on my scooter in Milan alone - we don't have bodyguards or anything like that. I am a fashion designer, not a celebrity, and although I get stopped for autographs and the like, I don't think I am famous.

We don't think only men can be powerful and strong. Behind the heads of the Mafia, the leaders of culture, there are always very strong women. European culture is a matriarchy, especially in the south. The women have a lot of power.

My memories are of denim. I remember being 12 in my Levi's. Wow! As a teenager in Milan, I was really fascinated by Fiorucci, but at the time I was not rich enough to buy. Oh my God! I made a collection of Fiorucci shopping bags, and my mother, she still has them and my stickers, and now I invite Elio Fiorucci to our shows.

I love the Weather Channel because my mood changes a lot according to the weather!

My mum is totally crazy for fashion still. Her job was as a laundress, but I loved it when she would dress up in her red suit with a mini jacket and flared trousers and get her wig fixed at the hairdresser's - it was the time of wigs - and we would go shopping.

We feel a special bond with Sicily and its people - in fact, our first campaigns were shot in Sicily, like the one shot in Vucciria Sicilian historical market We enjoyed showing the faces and the characters that crowd that beautiful market every day.

Italians know that what matters is style, not fashion. Italian style does not have social or age boundaries.

What the fashion system says and what the fashion customer says are really two different things.

My memories are of denim. I remember being 12 in my Levi's. Wow!

The fashion industry now has a direct relationship with its customers. Thanks to things like Twitter, ideas can be shared and circulated.

You don't change your style by changing your bag. You change it with your clothes.

In my whole life, I've worn black tie three times. I can't tie the knot myself.

My dream is to have a baby, not to adopt one, because I am not up to it and I don't feel strong enough. I want my own child, a biological child, the fruit of my sperm, conceived through artificial insemination because it wouldn't make sense for me to make love to a woman I don't love.

Fashion takes its inspiration from society and everyday life, which is the same for everyone, and this is perhaps the reason why certain elements recur.

You have to work very hard behind the scenes, to make a message clear enough for a lot of people to understand.

In my whole life, I've worn black tie three times. I can't tie the knot myself. Once, at the premiere of the opera, I got to La Scala before Domenico, and I was hiding in the corner until he arrived, and I said, 'Quick, you have to tie my tie, please!' Otherwise, I'll wear a tuxedo jacket with jeans and my bling-bling cross.

I never talked about homosexuality with my family. After I was 18, they know everything, but I never talk; it was like an information but in silence. I start to talk when I was 32, it was good for me - it was like a liberation. I'm talking about a love story. I'm not talking about sex because love is love.

Our fashion for us, it's an expression; first of all of life, I put all of myself in my fashion. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but this is a mirror, an expression about Domenico and Stefano. It's not just a profession: it's a person with a lot of personality.

Dreams can still come true; you need a great deal of energy and determination, and a little bit of luck.

I like Passion Duo, our brand-new gloss fusion lipstick. I also like our Illuminator - it's a glow-illuminating powder.

I adore Britain! It's my favourite country; I love their eccentricity. I find Britain so inspiring.

I am opposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents. A child needs a mother and a father. I could not imagine my childhood without my mother. I also believe that it is cruel to take a baby away from its mother.

In life you need to take a risk.

Fashion is OK for five days, one minute, six months, but style is for the rest of the life.

I had a few problems. I didn't realise it until I started going to therapy. I did it for 10 years, two days a week, and pretty quickly I understood that a lot of my suffering, many of my issues, were rooted in my realising that I was gay when I was a little boy. I knew I was different. That made me very fragile.

For me, the future isn't coming from the USA, like it was before.

Each one of us interprets various stimuli according to our own personal sensibility.

I like to eat pizza and spaghetti pomodoro, and I'm crazy for dessert. I like all of them: cassata, cheesecake, biscuits.

The first thing I do when I come to work, I say hello to my dogs and give them one biscuit each. The butler takes them out to the park and drops them off at the office, so they are there waiting for me. They are very popular in the studio. They play all the time. They run around, up and down, left and right.

Customers are very demanding and well informed.

I don't have the time to be bored.

I am a serious guy.

For a few days I tweeted with a certain Pippa Middleton, and I really thought it was the Pippa Middleton. Then I discovered it was a fake. But the person who had thought up the concept was nice. It was kind of genius in its own way.

I like to download as many apps as I can - especially the ones with games and gadgets.

It's all a game, with new rules every season.

Luxury is not a static concept, but it shapes and changes with society. Now somebody who might not have the time to come to one of our boutiques can shop online.

Maybe Italians are a bit less restrained: they can be less rigid and sometimes they stray a little in their ways of dressing for work, which is something that is always linked to the formal suit. What we like of both Italians and the British is that they love to dress well. In the past ten years we have witnessed a revolution in the menswear market.

My summer tip is to taste the freedom given by the long days - and by the holidays!