(Zero Hedge) – The founders of the Italian fashion powerhouse Dolce & Gabbana issued an apology to the Chinese people after a growing backlash over…
(Zero Hedge) – The founders of the Italian fashion powerhouse Dolce & Gabbana issued an apology to the Chinese people after a growing backlash over Stefano Gabbana’s “racist outburst” caused some of the country’s leading luxury e-commerce platforms to pull the brand after the Italian company was accused of racism and stereotyping the Chinese in its latest advertising campaign.
The online video featured a Chinese model struggling to eat Italian foods using chopsticks, topped with sexual innuendos — the narrators asks, “Is it still too big for you?” — around an oversized cannolo.
The scandal was compounded by explicitly racist messages posted on Dolce & Gabbana’s official Instagram account and that of co-founder Stefano Gabbana in which he described China as a “country of s***.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the company said that the accounts had been hacked: “We are very sorry for any distress caused by these unauthorized posts. We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China.
SMG Models, the agency that provided the model for the advertising campaign, apologized on its official Weibo account. The company said it did not have control over the outcome of the video shoot and that the agency and its models “resolutely oppose and boycott the D&G designer’s anti-Chinese behavior”.
The fallout forced the company to cancel a high-profile fashion show in Shanghai, after models and celebrities threatened to abandon the brand.
Ecommerce group Secoo Holding said on Thursday it had pulled Dolce & Gabbana products. “Because this is a racism issue . .. Secoo cannot co-operate with such a company without integrity and morality,” said a spokesperson for the company. Yoox Net-a-porter, the world’s largest online luxury platform by revenues, also suspended sales of all Dolce & Gabbana products on its Chinese websites, according to a person briefed on the decision.
