Dolce & Gabbana China show canceled amid accusations of racism
Dolce & Gabbana are once again under fire.
The designers behind the Italian fashion brand, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, are no strangers to controversy, regularly sparking outcry across the internet for things like calling Selena Gomez “so ugly” and branding Chiara Ferragni’s wedding gown “cheap.” But their latest behavior didn’t just cause outrage, it got their big runway show canceled.
The brand posted a video to Weibo, China’s top social media platform, and Instagram on Monday in advance of their 500-look #DGTheGreatShow runway presentation scheduled to take place in Shanghai on Wednesday.
In the short film, a Chinese model attempts to eat various Italian foods with chopsticks while a Chinese voiceover narration makes sexual innuendos about the food being too big for her. The video was taken down less than 24 hours later after commenters accused the label of racism.
The Instagram account Diet Prada then posted a series of screenshots of direct messages between Gabbana and another user in which the designer defended the video as “a tribute,” branding the accusations of racism “fake news.” He went on to call the people of China an “Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia” who eat dogs.
Gabbana has since claimed via his Instagram Stories that his account was hacked and he did not write any of those messages, subsequently deleting his account altogether. The brand’s official account seconded Gabbana’s story, writing “Our Instagram account has been hacked. So has the account of Stefano Gabbana. Our legal office is urgently investigating. We are very sorry for any distress caused by these unauthorized posts, comments and direct messages. We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China.”
Regardless, the runway show has been officially canceled by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Shanghai.
On Thursday, Dolce & Gabbana released a statement on the mater, writing, “Our dream was to bring to Shanghai a tribute event dedicated to China which tells our history and vision. It was not simply a fashion show, but something that we created especially with love and passion for China and all the people around the world who loves Dolce&Gabbana. What happened today was very unfortunate not only for us, but also for all the people who worked day and night to bring this event to life. From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to express our gratitude to our friends and guests.”
They followed that up with a video posted to Weibo in which they explicitly apologize to the people of China, saying, “We want to give our apology to all the Chinese in the world because there are so many and we take our apology and this message very seriously. We’ve always been very crazy about China, we’ve visited your country a lot. We’ve been in many cities. We love your culture.”
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