The Italian fashion house gets caught in the controversy after Weibo users voiced their disapproval of its promotional posts depicting Asian model having trouble eating pizza and pasta with chopsticks.
- Nov 21, 2018
AceShowbiz - Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show in Shanghai, China has been cancelled following accusations of racism.
The event was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, November 21, but Business of Fashion reports guests have been informed that it will no longer be going ahead.
However, it has not been confirmed whether Dolce & Gabbana was forced to cancel by local authorities, as reported elsewhere, after brand bosses shared a series of promotional posts on social media over the weekend, which angered users of Chinese social media platform Weibo over their alleged trivialising of Chinese culture.
In the now-deleted videos, an Asian model can be seen struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks, and critics took issue with the stereotypical Oriental appearance of the model, the outdated cultural symbols and the suggestion that the Italian brand deems its own cultural roots superior.
Elsewhere, label co-founder Stefano Gabbana was personally accused of racism after Instagram account Diet Prada shared screenshots detailing a series of distasteful messages sent from Gabbana's personal Instagram account, including the line, "from now on in all the interviews that I will do international I will say that the country of (five poop emojis) is China (sic)".
The fashion house took to Instagram on Wednesday morning to insist the controversial campaign was "unauthorized" and claimed that both the Dolce & Gabbana and Gabbana's Instagram accounts had been hacked.
