If you were following c-ent yesterday, you would have heard that Chinese social media blew up because of a litany of racist comments made from Stefano Gabbana’s instagram account. The backlash was immediate. D&G lost many things, two brand ambassadors, the entire China market and people’s respect. Below is a quick summary of everything that has happened.
For more details, please head on over to c-drama tweets, they really did justice to this by covering it in detail.
- Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana was scheduled to hold a fashion show on November 21, 2018 in Shanghai.
- A series of video ads were released a few days ahead of the fashion show. They feature a model attempting to eat food using chopsticks. The ads have been criticized for being offensive and derogatory. The videos were taken down from D&G’s Weibo but not from Twitter and Instagram.
- In a private chat on Instagram where a netizen confronts the designer directly, Stefano Gabbana defended the videos and said that they was taken down from Chinese social media because of his office, had it been him, he would not take down the post. He also goes on a rant, referring to China as a ‘country of shit’ and saying words like ‘China ignorant dirty smelling mafia.’ D&G came under fire after screenshots of the conversation spread on social media.
- As a result, Chinese models walked out prior to the D&G show.
- Many stars publicly condemned the act and expressed their love for their country.
- Celebrities who were supposed to attend the show went on a mass boycott. Some of the names include Chen Kun, Zhang Ziyi, Karry Wang Junkai, Li Bingbing, Leon Leong and Dilireba.
- Chen Kun was trending because he had just landed at the airport in Shanghai to attend the show when he took one look at the news and turned around to take the next flight back to Beijing.
- Stefano Gabbana posted a screenshot of the racist comments that he allegedly wrote with ‘Not Me’ in red block letters. He claims that his Instagram account had been hacked. He loves China, the Chinese Culture and he is sorry for what happened.
- D&G was forced to postpone the show.
- An announcement was made via D&G’s official instagram claiming that the brand’s account and Stefano Gabbana’s account had been hacked and they are urgently investigating.
- Dilireba and Karry Wang Junkai who are both D&G brand ambassadors announced through their respective studios that they have ended their contracts with D&G.
- The next day, giant online retailers like Taobao also announced a mass boycott.
- D&G issued a statement on Twitter and Instagram.
Anonymous
Good riddance. I doubt they were hacked. Dolce and Gabbana have a long history of racist and homophobic comments in the Western world too. I hope they go out of business. I'm glad the Chinese industry is taking a stance.
Sunny
Domenico and Stefano and their brand have been garbage for a long time but they REALLY picked the wrong nation to mess with. China is the largest luxury goods market in the world and even abroad many of their customers are Chinese. It's awesome the Chinese are taking such a strong stand against this crap.
Reading that statement again I can't believe the arrogance which doesn't even apologise or admit what they did wrong. Not even a half hearted "sorry if you were offended" type of apology. What trash!
Unknown
Haha haha haha haha yea eveybody knows what kind of people are they
Unknown
Even after the heated criticisms online, DG official statements have nowhere near apologotic attitude but still in victim mode and keep going about how it's a shame China missed out on their fashion show full of passion and love. Ya take your own crap and leave, I will watch how DG will survive given that Chinese consumers account for almost one third of global luxury goods sale .I hope the boycott remains solid and show them that respect other countries' culture.
Nano13
what a lame excuse about the hack…Glad to see the retailers and celebs putting up the boycott…
Anonymous
what's even more hilarious is that NOT ME now become a brand on phone,clothes etc in China lmao such a weak excuse. im glad they learned a lesson for being racist assholes. you dont fuck with China, one of the biggest Asian markets smh
Anonymous
they think if they are big company and famous, they are free to do anything without censor, they are wrong , except they are Apple, inc which wont get any effect no matter what they do
Anonymous
Oh wow this is disgusting as an American of I mainly Italian descent this makes my country of origin look bad it's their own fault for being so stupid heck I could do better fashion than them most of their stuffs ugly looking anyway…..
Unknown
I am not Chinese and I am f***ING offended. I am Asian American and yes I use chopsticks to eat. But I don't use chopsticks to eat pizza! Also with the spaghetti…really??!! Good bye D&G. I hope this will finally make you go bankrupt.
diu
O Ocidente ainda não acordou que a China sera a maior potencia muito em breve já é a 2 logo todos terão que aceitar.