Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has been receiving much flak over its latest campaign #DGLovesChina, after a series of clips were posted on their social media accounts featuring an Asian model using chopsticks to eat Italian dishes – pizza, spaghetti and traditional Sicilian cannolo.
But those promo videos, labelled “racist” by many social media users, were just the tip of the iceberg.
READ MORE: Hadid, Jenner Confirmed for VS Fashion Show Despite Racism, Ratings Claims
Ahead of the brand’s fashion show in Shanghai, which was scheduled for 21 November, Diet Prada’s Instagram account published screengrabs of a conversation between Stefano Gabbana and Instagram user @michaelatranova in the platform’s Direct Message service.
The Italian designer appeared to go as far as to call China “the country of sh*t,” brand it “Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia” and claim that Chinese people eat dogs.
Once the screenshots emerged online, netizens rushed to express their indignation and frustration with the designer and the entire fashion house, saying that “racist” Stefano Gabbana was officially “cancelled.”
But an apology wasn’t coming: the fashion house posted a statement on its Instagram account, claiming that both the designer’s and the D&G accounts had been hacked, and their legal offices were investigating the matter.
Gabbana published one of the screenshots, having written “Not Me” in bold all over the pic, with a caption, echoing the brand’s statement: “My Instagram account has been hacked. My legal office is working on this. I love China and the Chinese Culture. I’m so sorry for what happened.”
The D&G show in Shanghai was subsequently cancelled by the city’s Cultural Affairs Bureau…
…with models, who were supposed to take to the catwalk, launching a “Not Me” movement on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, in a sarcastic nod to his Instagram post:
During the past several months, Stefano Gabbana has been embroiled in much controversy – from calling pop singer Selena Gomez “really ugly” on Instagram to branding the Kardashian-Jenner clan “the cheapest people in the world.”