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Dolce and Gabbana Apologize After Destroying Their Chinese Market with Racist Video

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Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana apologized in a video posted to YouTube amid fallout from a racist video promo created for their Chinese market. But the fashion duo’s “apology” means little if you’ve seen text messages sent by Gabbana shortly after the ad broke.

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Says Dolce in the clip: “We have always been in love with China. We’ve visited it and seen many of its cities. We love your culture and we certainly have much to learn. That is why we are sorry if we made mistakes in the way we expressed ourselves.”

Here’s the promo ad for their show in Shanghai that started it all. The ad featured a Chinese model trying to eat various Italian food items — pizza, cannoli, spaghetti — with a set of chopsticks:

The fallout was chronicled by the Chinese entertainment and gossip Twitter account ‘c-drama tweets’. Gabbana got into it with an Instagram user once complaints of racism started pouring in. In the alleged messages, Gabbana trashes China with the poop emoji, points out how dogs are eaten in China, and more.

Celebrity guests began pulling out as the controversy grew.

This prompted Gabbana to claim that his Instagram account was hacked and that he loves China and the Chinese culture..

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and models began pulling out of the show:

Then, the fashion show was cancelled and the brand’s Instagram page claimed it was hacked. Is anybody buying this?

More models began dropping the brand.

Dolce & Gabbana then issued a statement containing no apology, but calling the cancellation of their show a “very unfortunate” thing:

Chinese retailers began dumping the brand:

It’s far from the first time the gay fashion duo have offended.

You may recall that in 2015 they gave an interview to the Italian magazine Panorama in which they indicated that “the only family is the traditional one” and that children born through in vitro fertilization were “synthetic” – views that naturally didn’t sit well with many. Months later, after a slew of celebrity boycotts, they apologized for their remarks.

And in 2006, Gabbana had made similar remarks to an Italian newspaper: “My dream is to have a baby, not to adopt one because I am not up to it and I don’t feel strong enough. I want my own child, a 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. The person I love today is my partner so I am looking for a civilised and refined woman. A week ago I asked a dear friend of mine, who is twelve years younger than me, if she would help. I asked her ‘Would you like to be the mother of my child ?’ She was left a bit shocked and the following day telephoned and said she was still shocked but thought it was a great idea. I am opposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents. A child needs a mother and a father. I could not imagine my childhood without my mother. I also believe that it is cruel to take a baby away from its mother.”

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