The whole Dolce & Gabbana China controversy

Stefano Gabbana is like the fashion version of Deciem founder, Brandon Truaxe; they both love controversy and mouthing off on social media. This month, we see the D&G brand engaged in a scandal that we think will take them a long looooong time to recover from (if ever)… this time involving their show in China that was scheduled for tonight (21 Nov 2018). That’s right… WAS. According to Diet Prada, the #DGTheGreatShow (yea, that’s what the brand called it) just got cancelled by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Shanghai. Here’s a summary of the events:

Nov 17:

Dolce & Gabbana share a post on their Instagram account, which is a campaign video titled, “Eating with Chopsticks”. There are 3 parts to the “chopsticks” series, all of which the designers claim are a tribute to China. See for yourself:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqR4-DVi4wQ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading

Nov 20:

The majority of the public accused the duo of racism. And Diet Prada put out a version with subtitles:

 

View this post on Instagram

#DGlovesChina ? More like #DGdesperateforthatChineseRMB lol.  In a bid to further appeal to luxury's covetable Chinese consumers, @dolcegabbana released some hella offensive “instructional” videos on the usage of chopsticks.  Pandering at it's finest, but taken up a notch by painting their target demographic as a tired and false stereotype of a people lacking refinement/culture to understand how to eat foreign foods and an over-the-top embellishment of cliché ambient music, comical pronunciations of foreign names/words, and Chinese subtitles (English added by us), which begs the question—who is this video actually for?  It attempts to target China, but instead mocks them with a parodied vision of what modern China is not…a gag for amusement. Dolce & Gabbana have already removed the videos from their Chinese social media channels, but not Instagram.  Stefano Gabbana has been on a much-needed social media cleanse (up until November 2nd), so maybe he kept himself busy by meddling with the marketing department for this series. Who wants to bet the XL cannoli “size” innuendos were his idea? Lmao. • #dolceandgabbana #altamoda #rtw #dgmillennials #stefanogabbana #shanghai #chinese #italian #cannoli #meme #wtf #dumb #lame #chopsticks #foodie #tutorial #cuisine #italianfood #asianmodel #asian #chinesefood #dietprada

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Is it meant to target China and the Chinese people? Because Dolce & Gabbana are Italian, and as non-Chinese, they shouldn’t be “teaching” Chinese people how to use chopsticks. And hey, we don’t use chopsticks for everything! Maybe the designers were trying to be quirky, but it backfired in a huge way and ended up being really insulting and offensive.

Nov 21:

A Diet Prada follower, Michaela, DMed her displeasure to Stefano Gabbana, and got a response. Here’s the entire painful exchange:

 

Shortly after, Dolce & Gabbana claim their Instagram accounts got hacked (yes two accounts):

No one believes them.

Diet Prada then points out that Stefano Gabbana reposted the same DM exchange on his stories before claiming he got hacked. 🤔 (FYI Stefano — that story is still up! Here’s a link we think you’ll find useful: How to delete an Instagram Story).

 

Now:

The story is trending on Weibo, and Chinese celebrities and modelling agencies are pulling out of the show and denouncing the brand.

Finally:

Here’s one final exchange to seal the fate of these assholes:

Can’t say they don’t deserve it. Follow Diet Prada on Instagram for more updates.