Dolce & Gabbana have canceled a long-planned fashion show on Wednesday in Shanghai after a protest on racial attacking messages on his social media accounts, a setback for the company on the most important luxury market in the world.
The Italian fashion house quickly gave a statement and said that the bills and that of his namesake designer Stefano Gabbana had been hacked, but it did little to calm a brewing social media in China.
Some of China’s greatest celebrities were invoiced to attend the “Great Show” event, but on Wednesday one after the other announced their withdrawal.
“Our motherland is more important than anything, we appreciate the power and beauty of our cultural heritage,” said Wang Junkai’s management, a hugely popular singer in Boyband -TBoys, while they announced his withdrawal.
“I love my motherland,” actress Li Bingbing told her 42 million fans on Weibo.
The controversy originated after Dolce & Gabbana posted short clips on Instagram earlier this week and showed a woman who eats pizza and spaghetti with sticks that became some culturally insensitive.
It broke out in a fire storm after screenshots that circulated from a chat from an Instagram user with the famous volatile Stefano Gabbana in which he used five smiling kakemojis to talk and offend in the country and his people.
Even the communist youth competition of China jumped into the fight.
“Foreign companies that are active in China must respect China and respect the Chinese,” tweeted the Youth League in Dolce & Gabbana on Weibo.
Actor Talu Wang also tweeted on Weibo: “Respect is more important than anything.”
While the return escalated, Dolce & Gabbana went to Instagram and Weibo and said that his account and that of designer Stefano Gabbana had been hacked and that the legal office “urgently investigated” the case.
“We are very sorry for any suffering caused by these unauthorized posts. We have nothing but respect for China and the population of China,” the company said on Instagram.
Dolce & Gabbana separately said on his verified Weibo account that the show “has been planned”, although it did not specify the reason and neither gave a new date for the event.
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” said it.
The controversy marks the latest background of a foreign company for insulting Chinese consumers with advertising or information that insults or collides with the official position of Beijing.
Earlier this year, the German car maker Mercedes-Benz apologized for “hurting the feelings” of people in China after the Instagram account had quoted the Tibetan spiritual leader De Dalai Lama, seen as a separatist of Beijing.
