Dolce's Downfall

Art by Francisco Guglieimino

The Chinese model, dressed in a ruby red dress and sparkling jewelry, sits down in front of a huge pizza. She looks bewildered, giggles, and attempts to use chopsticks to dig into her meal. The Instagram video series deemed racist and stereotypical follows the same format—model uses chopsticks to eat Italian dishes while a mocking voice-over narrates her actions. These videos, meant to promote Dolce and Gabbana’s “The Great Show” in Shanghai, became a catalyst to the brand’s inevitable downfall. Later, Instagram direct message screenshots of Stefano Gabbana saying “China ignorant dirty smelling mafia” made rounds on the web. 

This wasn’t the first time Stefano Gabbana let loose a stink bomb of controversy, but for many of us, this detonation locked in the last nail in the coffin.

Naturally, boycotts ensued all over China in response to the three promotional videos and direct message screenshots leaked late fall of last year. Chinese consumers trashed and burned their Dolce and Gabbana items, actors and models set to walk the D&G show pulled out, and Chinese star and D&G ambassador Wang Junkai terminated his contract with the company. 

God bless Gabbana’s public relations crew as one can only imagine what it must have felt like to wake up and be in charge of fixing this disaster. The D&G Instagram account tried to assuage the damage, claiming both the official account and Gabbana’s account had been hacked. “We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China,” the post offered. 

With Gabbana’s track record for brutish comments, a “sincere” and “honest” apology became a hard sell. Let’s not forget the time he called Selena Gomez ugly or that time he called IVF babies “synthetic.” Three years ago, D&G also released the ill-named “slave” sandal, and two years ago, they released a graffiti-style sneaker with the words “I’m Thin & Gorgeous” scribbled across. The sneaker elicited backlash from the National Eating Disorders Association to which Gabbana commented on Instagram, “Darling you prefer to be fat and full of cholesterol??? I think you have a problem.” 

Needless to say, Gabbana’s unfiltered words never failed to provoke outrage. The brand even mocked the criticism with the release of their “Boycott Dolce & Gabbana” graphic tees. Somehow the brand has successfully been able to make fun of the controversy and capitalized on it. Not this time. 

This time, the long-overdue repercussions were extremely severe. The luxury brand canceled “The Great Show,” and their products quickly disappeared from Chinese e-commerce websites like Alibaba’s TMall, jd.com, and secoo.com. 

The Chinese market holds crucial importance in the world of luxury fashion. In an interview with Imrad Amed at the Business of Fashion Chinese Summit, Gucci CEO Marco Bizarri emphasized how the Chinese market contributed significantly to the brand’s current success. 

Since Dolce’s disaster last November, luxury fashion has had no shortage of problematic launches. In December, racially charged figurines appeared in Prada’s SoHo shop display. Not long after, Gucci released a black balaclava sweater featuring bright red lips around the mouth opening. Images of the figurines and the sweater went viral, many denouncing the culturally insensitive designs.

Director Spike Lee ignited a boycott on Prada and Gucci and the Instagram pages of both brands flooded with critical comments from angry consumers. However, unlike D&G, both Prada and Gucci responded promptly and sincerely in a way that restored favor with the public. Marco Bizarri met with African American designer Dapper Dan in Harlem to understand his perspective and receive counsel on the brand’s next steps. Gucci has since created a design scholarship program and said it will begin conducting unconscious-bias employee training sessions this May. 

Prada established a diversity council headed by Ava DuVernay and Theaster Gates. In addition, the initiative mentioned partnering with universities to create scholarships, internships, and apprenticeships to help propel this commitment to diversity. 

As consumers, we want to connect with brands that reflect our views on cultural respect. Even with the artistry and impeccable tailoring of the D&G’s Fall 2019 collection, we can’t help but feel wildly disconnected from the brand. 

Domenico Dolce, who hasn’t directly commented on the issue, appears in an apology video alongside Gabbana. We want D&G to take accountability; however, unlike Prada and Gucci, their history means they must do extra damage control. The first step is internal—inject humility by apologizing for all problematic occurrences prior because printing more boycott t-shirts can’t bandage this. D&G did not grace this year’s Oscars red carpet, and everyone understands why stylists steered clear. Sorry, Stefano, but it looks like a comeback isn’t happening any time soon. Cute dress, though.