DOLCE Domenico & GABBANA Stefano (Dolce & Gabbana) (Designers)

This photograph of Italian icon Isabella Rossellini could almost be a still from one of her father, Roberto Rossellini's, black-and-white films of the 1940s. This cinematic sensuality is typical of Dolce & Gabbana's style. Their idealistic vision of Italy revolves around specific themes: silver screen sirens (leopard prints and corsetry à la Sophia Loren), Catholicism (Sunday best suits and rosary beads) and various Italian stereotypes, from Mafioso machismo (pinstripe suits and trillbys) to the simplicity of Sicilian widows (little black dresses, headscarves, fishing village baskets). But beneath this puritanical patriotism there are also hints of playful subversion: suits cut with integral corsetry or lace panels are favourites. Successfully integrating these sensibilities into a global brand, Dolce & Gabbana launched their first couture show in Taormina, Sicily, in 2012. 

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DOEUILLET Georges (Designer)

The exquisite work of Georges Doeuillet is captured here in the fashion plates of André Marty. Fastidiously stylish, Marty has created a pictorial witticism to depict the character of the dress. Here the delicacy and fragility of Doeuillet's robe de lingerie is juxtaposed against the foreboding figure of Cupid. It is an example of haute couture providing a stimulating atmosphere for the rejuvenation of fashion illustration, a combination of luxurious design and texture with artistic excellence that captured the spirit of the times. Doeuillet's Paris couture house was founded in 1900, creating exquisitely intricate workmanship very much of its time. Noted for his use of magnificent fabrics, Doeuillet was a prestigious fashion house that provided the bon ton with some of the most opulent clothes of the early years of the twentieth century. It merged with the salon of Jacques Doucet on his death in 1929. 

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DIOR Christian (Designer)

Reading the faces of this salon audience, it is possible to gauge the breadth of reaction that greeted Christian Dior's first collection, which was dubbed the "New Look" after this show by Carmel Snow, editor of Harper's Bazaar. As they gaze at an hourglass jacket of cream tussore over a skirt constructed from a decadent yardage of black wool, the audience registers shock, disapproval and deep yearning. At a time of postwar austerity, the New Look tempted women back into the nostalgic femininity of corsets and, most controversially, flowing skirts that would use to fifty yards of material. Dior, who had wanted to be an architect but turned to fashion, working for Piguet, Lelong and Balmain, said that it was one of the happiest moments of his life, "I created flower women with gentle shoulders and generous bosoms, with tiny waists like stems and skirts belling out like petals". 

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DINNIGAN Collette (Designer)

Collette Dinnigan's dress has the charm of an antique dress, yet possesses a modern sensuality, suspended as it is from two spaghetti straps. Its lace tiers and train belong to the romantic, early twentieth-century designers such as Paquin, Lucile and Doeuillet. Dinnigan launched her career designing and selling lace and chiffon lingerie. Her success allowed her to open a shop in Sydney in 1992, and begin designing a ready-to-wear line. Her use of womanly fabrics and attention to the female from resulted in clinging slip dresses that gave sophistication to the trend for wearing underwear as outwear. The preciousness of her designs is reminiscent of haute couture detailing and was a contrast to the prevailing use of undecorated fabrics cut into graphic forms. The simple shapes of underwear are wrought in lace and placed over contrasting satins to achieve the luminescence illustrated here. 

Also look up for Doeuillet, Duff Gordon, Isagowa, Moon, Oudejans, Sarne

DIANA Princess of Wales (Icon)

"Clothes are now not as essential to my work as they used to be", Diana, Princess of Wales, told Vogue in 1997. It was a confident statement from a woman who had come to realize that a pair of jeans wouldn't compromise her effectiveness. And it showed. Towards the end of her life, Diana's wardrobe finally took a back seat to the person she was and the work she did; an utterly modern concept. Here she wears an artfully uncomplicated navy lace dress by Catherine Walker for a charity film premiere in 1997. From the day Lady Diana Spencer was first caught on film in the early 1980s wearing archetypal British upperclass clothing, the ensuing developments in her wardrobe and the colour of lipstick she chose were closely watched and copied. Particular attention was given to her hair, sleeked and simplified in the 1990s by Sam McKnight. In 1999 Time magazine named Diana one of the "100 Most Important People of the Twentieth Century". 

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DESSÈS Jean (Designer)

The roses at the hem of this chiffon dress were only usually exposed as the wearer walked. They are a charming addition to a classically inspired gown. The fashions of Dessès were inspired by his Greek heritage and Egyptian place of birth. He was a master of draped chiffon and muslin evening dresses derived from ancient robes. He was also noted for dresses made in the form of fitted jackets in plain colours with voluminous skirts in a contrasting patterned print. He established his own maison de couture in Paris in 1937. Dessès participated in the "Théâtre de la Mode", the fashion doll exhibition organized by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne under its president, Lucien Lelong. Some forty couturiers designed haute couture in miniature for these little mannequins made of wire. They were placed in sets depicting scenes of Parisian life designed by artists involved in fashion, such as Cocteau and Bérard. 

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DENEUVE Catherine (Icon)

Catherine Deneuve leaps for Francesco Scavullo's camera, a consummate model as an icon of French elegance, froideur and sensibility. Deneuve is also a long-term muse to Yves Saint Laurent, whom she met when he dressed her for Belle de Jour. Saint Laurent says of her, "She is a woman who makes me dream... As a friend she is the most delightful, warmest, sweetest and most protective". As French Vogue's most featured cover face, Deneuve represents the legendary chic femininity of French womanhood and as such was also the face of Chanel No.5. Here, she wears a suit made of calfskin printed with cheetah spots and trimmed with mink, a powerful combination brought together by Arnold Scaasi. When she talks about the de-feminized roles played by actresses in modern films, Deneuve outlines her own style, "Superficially, it may appear that the women now are stronger, but they are not stronger, only more masculine".

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