Livin’ La Dolce Vita: Light Blue Turns 25 With A Capri Glow-Up

It’s not every day that a 25-year-old summer memory gets a second life, especially one that It’s not often that a fragrance celebrates its 25th anniversary without losing relevance—or romance. But Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana has managed to stay firmly in the zeitgeist, thanks to its unmistakable blend of Sicilian lemon, rosemary, woods, and whisper-soft patchouli.

This summer, the brand returned to Capri, Light Blue’s spiritual home, to mark the milestone with a relaunch that feels less like a reboot and more like a love letter.

A Subtle Shift

The Light Blue relaunch posed a unique creative challenge: how do you revisit a bestseller without diluting its DNA? “When you have a fragrance that’s still a global top five after 25 years, the first question is—why change it? And then, how?” said Gianluca Toniolo, CEO of Dolce & Gabbana Beauty.

The answer: don’t reinvent. Refine.

Master perfumers Alberto Morillas and Olivier Cresp reworked the formula to improve longevity—now lasting up to 16 hours—while retaining the signature lemon-wood balance that made Light Blue iconic. The bottle received a quiet upgrade, too. Less plastic, more glass. A sleeker silhouette. A tactile weight that speaks to the new design philosophy: sustainability meets sensuality. “We wanted to modernise the object itself,” Toniolo explained. “The finish, the way it sits in the hand—it had to feel as good as it smells.”

Campaign, Recast

Shot by Antonio de Deasi on Capri’s cinematic cliffs, the new campaign stars Theo James and Vittoria Ceretti. It’s less glossy than the Bianca Balti–David Gandy era and more cinematic, with a moody Mediterranean charm that feels grown-up yet effortlessly sexy.

The location hasn’t changed—but the energy has. This is Light Blue for a new generation, one that values atmosphere over aesthetic.

Introducing: Capri in Love

To accompany the relaunch, Dolce & Gabbana also introduced Capri in Love—a complementary duo that expands the Light Blue universe.

• Capri in Love Pour Homme leans darker and spicier: black pepper, fig, and patchouli.
  

• Capri in Love Pour Femme opens with crisp green apple and jasmine tea, grounded in longoza flower—known as the “flower of eternity”.

Both bottles borrow design cues from traditional majolica tiles, with velvet-lined packaging and Mediterranean-inspired ceramics tying the collection back to its roots.

Legacy Meets Strategy

The romanticism of Light Blue belies its commercial heft. The fragrance contributes over 35% to Dolce & Gabbana’s global perfume revenue and remains one of the top-selling prestige fragrances worldwide.

Following the brand’s 2022 separation from Shiseido, DG has grown its beauty division by 35%, with ambitions to hit €4 billion in retail sales by 2027. Unsurprisingly, Light Blue is at the centre of that strategy, especially in key markets like the US and Asia.

Capri wasn’t just the campaign’s backdrop. It was a message: Light Blue may be 25, but its story is far from over. “Reinvention doesn’t always mean starting over,” said Toniolo. “Sometimes, it means knowing what to protect—and how to evolve.”