Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce and Gabbana, one of the world's biggest fashion houses, have quietly wrapped up their 20-year relationship although they will continue their fashion business, according to the New York Daily News.

The openly gay Italian fashion designers were arguably one of the world's best-known gay couples and have had a huge gay following for nearly a decade.

The pair met in the early 1980s when they worked for the same design studio in Milan. In 1982, the two left the design company where they were working to pursue separate consulting careers, but they continued to share an office as well as a private life. Soon after, the Dolce & Gabbana label was born and they had their first catwalk show in 1984.

The couple shared the Villa Volpe, an outrageously decorated 19th-century palazzo in the heart of Milan and are noted to speak freely about their home life as well as their business partnership in interviews.

According to an unnamed fashion insider quoted in the report, both have already found new love since their split and the four had recently gone on a safari to Africa - it is no coincidence that the pair had put on a luxurious show of python, zebra and leopard prints, and acres of lace at a Milan show earlier this month.

Dolce and Gabbana is one of the world's largest fashion houses and said to be worth over US$645 million.