“You love not China, but money”: How Dolce & Gabbana became a non grata brand
The past week was marked for Dolce & Gabbana deafening scandal - and if, despite all the ambiguous statements, designers had suffered only small reputational losses, now loyal customers are massively destroying items of the brand worth tens of thousands of dollars, and the shops refuse to cooperate for many years. We tell how it happened.
Text: Anna Aristova
The reason for the outbreak of the storm was the new campaign #DGlovesChina, timed to coincide with a major brand show in Shanghai. In a series of videos published on Instagram and the Weibo social network on November 19, the Chinese model eats Italian dishes like pizza and dessert cannoli with chopsticks, or rather, awkwardly trying to do it - perhaps the creators conceived such a move as “ironic”, but the joke was hardly a success. "What, is still too big for you?" - voice over asks in mockery. The reaction was followed immediately: users of social networks accused the brand of racism and mockery of Chinese culture. "The campaign is focused on China, but instead the mark is boasted of the parodical vision of modern China, which does not coincide with reality," the authors of the blog Diet Prada picked up. The situation was finally aggravated by Stefano Gabbana's correspondence screenshots with the instagram user Mikaela Pranova, in which the designer himself accuses the Chinese of racism because of "eating dogs" and makes other offensive statements - and this is almost one-third Dolce & Gabbana's revenue is from China.
Twenty-four hours later, the video disappeared from the pages of Dolce & Gabbana, and the representatives of the brand hurriedly made a statement that the brand and Stefano Gabbana’s accounts had been hacked - they apologized for the “caused concern” and added that lawyers are investigating what happened. The version about “hacking” was supported by Stefano Gabbana: “My instagram was hacked. The lawyers are working on it now. I love China and Chinese culture. I regret what happened,” he wrote on his page (at the time of publication the photo was already deleted - instead of This designer posted on his page video with a cat). Before the announcement of the burglary, Stefano published Storiz, so the version about the plausibility of the burglary was immediately questioned.
The new campaign was just a trigger for the long-established conflict between the Italian brand and the Chinese audience.
Upon learning of Stefano Gabbana’s insulting remarks, the models and celebrities invited to the show began to massively refuse to participate in the Shanghai show (the chronology of that day, on condition of anonymity, told Dazed one of the models, which was supposed to be on the podium). In addition, another model of French-Chinese origin Estelle Chen said that Dolce & Gabbana "loves not China, but money." "China is rich not only in money, but also in its values, culture and people who don’t spend a cent on a brand that does not respect it all," she wrote on Instagram. A few hours before the event, the brand announced the cancellation of the show - and a day later a video message appeared on the Dolce & Gabbana page, in which Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said that they had thought about what had happened and apologized to all Chinese people. “Our families have always taught us to respect different cultures, and therefore we would like to apologize if we interpreted your [culture] incorrectly,” the designers emphasized. “We always adored China, often visited and visited different cities. We love your culture, and we still have a lot to learn. Therefore, we apologize if we made a mistake in how we expressed ourselves. "
But, if you think about it, mistakes in “self-expression” and scandals around Dolce & Gabbana have been observed for more than a year - the new campaign only acted as a trigger for a long-standing conflict between the Italian brand and the Chinese audience, as well as the modern world, in which there is no place for harassment and racism. Suffice it to recall last year’s campaign, for which Dolce & Gabbana was accused of “depicting Beijing as an underdeveloped city”, or the events of 2012, when Hong Kong residents were forbidden to photograph Dolce & Gabbana boutique, while foreigners and residents of mainland China were allowed to do so. And this is not counting other offensive statements of Stefano Gabbana outside the context of China - starting with the fact that he unexpectedly called the singer Selena Gomez "ugly", and ending with the fact that the designers criticized the appearance of children in same-sex families and artificial insemination. Cherry on the cake was last year's statement Gabbana that he does not consider sexual harassment violence.
Analysts suggest that such a reputational collapse is irreversible and will necessarily result in a drop in sales, and Stefano will be removed from work
As for criticism, Gabbana, it would seem, is already purposely doing whatever he pleases - and even began to monetize the anger of the public, releasing T-shirts with the slogan "#Boycott Dolce & Gabbana" after accusations of support for Melania Trump. "THANK YOU Haters !!!!" wrote Stefano in the caption to the photo.
What this scandal will turn into in the long term is still difficult to predict: some experts believe that Dolce & Gabbana’s misconduct will be forgotten in the same way as the recent incident involving the Balenciaga brand (when Chinese buyers were not allowed into the Paris boutique). Analysts assume that such a reputational collapse is irreversible and will necessarily result in a drop in sales, and Stefano will be removed from business. Who is right, the figures will show, but one thing in 2018 is already clear - the attitude "I will not be anything for it" and, pride in their politically incorrect attitude, fortunately, is no longer in vogue.
PHOTO: Dolce & Gabbana
