Dolce & Gabbana has cancelled its Shanghai fashion show amid accusations of racism over its latest ad campaign and Stefano Gabbana

The story starts with the Italian fashion house D&G’s recent campaign series “DG Loves China,” which was launched in order to promote a runway show that was supposed to take place in Shanghai on November 21st. The Dolce & Gabbana trouble began with a series of Instagram ad campaigns released this week in which a female Chinese model attempts to eat various Italian dishes with chopsticks. In one involving cannoli, the male narrator asks in Mandarin, “Is it too huge for you?” All three are set in a highly stereotypical-looking Chinese market stall and backed by a soundtrack with an erhu, or Chinese violin.

But when Instagram DMs that appeared to be from Stefano Gabbana were leaked, the outrage was further exaggerated. Diet Prada, posted screenshots of an exchange that appeared to be between Gabbana and model Michaela Tranova. During the conversation, Tranova challenges Gabbana on the ad campaign, and Gabbana retorts by insinuating that Tranova herself is racist for “eating dogs” and that “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia.”

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You saw it here first! What an interesting few hours spent wreaking havoc on @dolcegabbana ’s ill-fated #DGTheGreatShow while sitting on our couch juuling and eating gelato (not with chopsticks) lol. Thank you to @michaelatranova @helenatranova @anthxnyxo for sharing their DMs and to all the Chinese Dieters who furiously updated us with translations by the minute. For anyone that believes their account was actually hacked, see slide #2 of Stefano reposting the same DM on his stories before shit hit the fan. Oh the irony of him loving to cry “fake news” and promptly dishing it out himself via his and the brand IG account. Check our story highlight “#DGTheShitShow” for the full recap. • #DGTheGreatShow #DGlovesChina #runway #fashionshow #cancelled #racism #dolceandgabbana #altamoda #rtw #dgmillennials #stefanogabbana #shanghai #chinese #china #wtf #dumb #lame #asianmodel #asian #dietprada

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The hashtag #BoycottDolce was reportedly trending on the Chinese social media site Weibo, and many of the show’s models publicly announced they would not attend. According to another post by Diet Prada, Shanghai government officials cancelled the event just hours before it was to take place.

The brand Dolce Gabbana, said its and co-founder Stefano Gabbana’s accounts were hacked and used to criticise Chinese people. “We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China,” the apology message read.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqbgvLinF1w/

Gabbana also apologised, posting a screenshot on Instagram of offensive messages he claims were sent by a hacker abusing his account. The brand crisis deepened when messages allegedly written by co-founder Stefano Gabbana, which included offensive comments about Chinese people, went viral.

But no apologies worked!

Stay Tuned.

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