In a new interview, Stefano says he 'wasn't expecting' that the 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' singer would call for a boycott of his Dolce and Gabbana label.
- Mar 17, 2015
AceShowbiz - After defending his IVF comments in a statement, Stefano Gabbana speaks out against Elton John in a new interview with Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. Stefano calls Elton "ignorant" after he called for boycott of his Dolce & Gabbana label.
He says, "I wasn't expecting it. I wasn't expecting it from someone like Elton John I used to think - and I stress 'used to' - was intelligent. What's going on? You preach understanding. You preach tolerance. And then you put the knife in? All because someone else doesn't see things your way? Is that supposed to be a democratic way of thinking? Enlightened? He's ignorant, in the sense that he denies ways of seeing things that may not be his but are just as deserving of respect."
Stefano also says that his previous comments about parenthood are taken out of context. "[Domenico Dolce and I] have always lived our sexuality in private. We've never raised our voices. Now they are putting words that are not ours into our mouths, saying we're against gay adoptions. Not true. Domenico simply expressed his opinion on the traditional family and medically assisted fertilization. Do others think differently? That's their privilege. But we want the same respect."
When asked if he's worried that the boycott may have any impact on sales, Stefano smiles and replies, "We might lose one or two Elton John fans, or gain one or two mums. Who knows."
Celebrities have shown their support for Elton's boycott and the latest one is Ryan Murphy, the executive producer of "American Horror Story" and "Glee". In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan says he will urge others in Hollywood to join the boycott and will "put [the D&G clothes lined up for his shows] in the trash or return them."
Ryan tells the site that the designers' IVF comments are "not just a gay issue." He explains, "I know 10 women in my life who used IVF to conceive - and three doing it right now. IVF is a scientific miracle that helps loving families fulfill their dreams. To tell them their choices as women - anyone's choices on family - are not embraced, well, I don't think they'll be traipsing off to a Dolce & Gabbana store to buy clothes anytime soon."
Ryan believes that the comments will reverberate throughout gay community, which has "always embraced their clothes. It's so ignorant of Dolce & Gabbana to speak out with such ugly evil - what they said is a not-modern thing to say. There are all kinds of families today."
He also calls Stefano "hypocrite" because in a 2006 interview with an Italian newspaper, the designer said he wanted a child through artificial insemination. "My dream is to have a baby," Stefano said at that time, "I want my own child, biological child, the fruit of my sperm, conceived through artificial insemination because it wouldn't make sense for me to make love to a woman I don't love."
Ryan tells the site, "He's a hypocrite. And then to sell the image of the family in their ad campaigns and recent fashion shows on top of that is pure hypocrisy. There will be crickets going through Dolce & Gabbana stores soon, just like there have been at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Don't use family in your advertising as a gimmick. It's their prerogative to speak out - and it's my prerogative not to use any of their clothes on my shows. Or buy them for myself either."
