Dolce & Gabbana always seemed to enjoy a controversy: for years they have appropriated and used the main religious symbols of Catholicism going from rosary beads and ex votos to miraculous medals, designing Haute Couture dresses that moved from the wardrobes of sacred statues representing the Virgin Mary and, more recently, Saint Januarius.
But the list of their fashion crimes is long and includes a 2007 advert that seemed to encourage gang rape; a minor row with a Dunfermline-based garage called D&G Autocare over the use of the "D&G" name (seriously?), and sandals described online as "alla schiava" (literally "in the fashion of a slave", a description that in Italy was popular between the '70s and the early '80s, but that should have been removed from the fashion vocabulary a long time ago...). Besides, in 2015, Domenico Dolce called children born through IVF "synthetic", adding that the design duo opposed gay adoption, while, more recently, Stefano Gabbana body shamed on Instagram Selena Gomez. Then there was last week's mess.
On Wednesday, the fashion house was supposed to do a spectacular runway show - the biggest in its history, featuring 500 looks - in Shanghai. The event was anticipated by a series of adverts showing a Chinese model struggling to eat a pizza, spaghetti and (a rather large...) Sicilian cannolo with chopsticks. Understandably, the ads didn't go down too well in China and were called racist and sexist for obvious reasons (how would you otherwise describe the ad with the model eating the cannolo and a cringingly allusive male voice providing instructions in Mandarin in a patronising voice and asking "It's still way too big for you"?). The video posts, published on November 17, were taken down from Weibo, the biggest social media platform in China, but not from Instagram.
Following the adverts, a private Instagram conversation between fashion writer Michaela Phuong Tranova and Stefano Gabbana was leaked on @diet_prada, an Instagram account publishing images of designers copying each others and other assorted copyright infringements.
In the conversation, Gabbana replied to criticism about the promotional videos, but the comments soon turned nasty and the designer ended up offending Chinese people, stating "From now on in all the interview [sic] that I will do international I will say that the country of [poop emojis] is China" and "China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia".
Soon things escalated: fashion names and celebrities immediately pulled out of the show that was eventually cancelled, people (including actress Zhang Ziyi, singer Wang Junkai, actors Li Bingbing, Chen Kun, Dilraba and girl band Rocket Girls 101) posted on social media messages about boycotting D&G, while ordinary people started posting videos and images of them destroying their D&G clothes and accessories.
Politics didn't seem too interested in getting involved, but foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang stated last Thursday "to ask the ordinary people in China to see how they view this issue."
In the meantime the Yoox Net-a-porter Group became the first global retailer to drop the brand from its platforms - Net-a-porter, Mr Porter and Yoox.com. Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba, Tmall, JD.com, Suning Tesco, Netease Koala, VIPshop and Netease, also removed products by D&G, and more companies and retailers joined the boycott, among them also Secoo and Sephora.
Realising the damage was huge, D&G posted on Wednesday afternoon stating that Gabbana's account had been hacked, but the next day the duo issued a video in which they apologised and said "sorry" in Mandarin.
There are lessons to be learnt from this sad incident showing that the fashion industry is definitely not a healthy place to be. First of all there is a lack of respect for different cultures and for consumers in general and some countries are more or less considered as fertile places to colonise and make business with rather than as opportunities to learn more about other cultures and inspire other people and, in return, get inspired by them.
The original adverts that D&G did for the show also revealed some of the main mistakes committed by most fashion houses that have expanded all over the world: they post on social media and think they are tuned in with all sorts of cultures, but, having offices in other countries doesn't mean anything if decisions are often taken in their main HQs, without actually listening to suggestions and ideas that may be coming from local teams about more effective and less offending marketing campaigns. It takes indeed more than just learning a language or having an office and some shops in another country to understand a culture, and sensibility, an open mind and heart and a will to listen and respect other people always help.
The D&G incident was sad on more than one level: while the comments posted on Gabbana's account offended China and Chinese people, if they were written by Gabbana himself rather than a hacker, they showed that one half of the design duo is incredibly immature and never learnt anything from their personal experiences. While Gabbana was born in Milan, Dolce was born in Sicily, and you can be sure that at some point in their lives they had to fight against certain Italian stereotypes (in Italy there has always been a dichotomy between a richer, wealthier and more educated North Vs a poorer and uneducated South, a dichotomy that often causes racist tensions) and you can bet that, like many other Italians who work on an international level, they probably had to face also other terrible stereotypes like being called "mafiosi" and such likes.
What happened also revealed some changes in approaching certain controversies and situations especially since social media arrived on the scene. People expressed deep outrage when John Galliano cracked up in 2011. As a consequence the house of Dior immediately fired him, but in D&G's case (7 years later than Galliano's incident) the news spread in an even quicker way and many retailers immediately distanced themselves from the brand.
Gabbana may have to start learning how to use social media and moderate his tone (admitting there was a hacker behind this attack, Gabbana has used inappropriate language in other Instagram posts in the past...), but, from the legal perspective there is something else to consider. Gabbana's comments were done in a private chat and revealing them may not be deemed completely legal especially if the fashion house lawyers manage to prove that the comments were posted by the alleged "hacker" and that spreading them caused defamation and financial losses. The fashion house's communications office has prepared indeed cease and desist letters and threatened to take legal action against social media users that accused the duo of being racist. They also demanded that "false information" be removed from accounts to avoid a legal action (on the basis of defamation).
That said it may be difficult to silence the Internet: images of Gabbana's comments can be stored all over the world, and it may not be easy to erase them all and silence all the accounts asking to boycott them or calling them racist (the duo is well known for blacklisting journalists who are very critical about them, among them writers from The New York Times and WWD who have been banned for years from their shows, but one thing is isolating one journalist, another trying to erase comments and screen captures...).
Is the damage irreversible? Difficult to say, especially if we consider other outrageous cases: Galliano made a mess in 2011, but he admitted his guilt, apologised and everything seemed to have been forgotten after Renzo Rosso gave him a new chance at Margiela. Time will tell if Chinese consumers can forget Dolce & Gabbana.
But one thing's for certain: as Valentino and Dior Men get ready to take Japan today and on Friday with pre-fall shows to target not just the Japanese luxury market, but also the Chinese tourists visiting Japan, D&G made a huge faux pas that is costing them millions, considering that China is a key market for luxury labels, and it will take quite a while to recover from it.
Yet, while they may have lost everybody's support, there is one client they can probably keep on dressing - U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, especially after the sanctions imposed by Donald Trump on China.
As an alternative, they can repent and change job: given their knowledge of religious symbols, maybe they could become priests, after all they tried this role already when they were given cameos in Rob Marshall's movie "Nine".
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