Susanne Ljung: Dolce & Gabbana ended up in a pr nightmare in China

Last summer you could buy t-shirts with the text ”#Boycott Dolce & Gabbana”.

The Italian design duo Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce themselves had designed them. An attempt to joke with the criticism they received after having paid homage to the american presidenthustrun Melania Trump have been their clothing, including an embroidered sidenkappa for half a million dollars. An eye-catching sum for a coat when her husband, just set the knife in the american health insurance system.

omvärldsanalytiska observations, and react to them, is, however, nothing that ever concerned them, in particular, not Stefano Gabbana.

On its own Instagramkonto he wrote, ”THANK YOU Haters!!!!” and ”Remember #boycottdolcegabbana please...” Where did he even publish a movie with the title ”What you can do with your opinion”, strikingly similar to an instructional video for how, and where, you place a suppository.

Read more stilkrönikor by Susanne Ljung

It was far from the first time the brand showed a strikingly lomhördhet in terms of aware of the situation. Or lack of skilled pr professionals who can help them to keep the flap in sensitive issues.

in 2015 and set to with the uproar in an interview call children that come to life through IVF for ”synthetic” and jabber on about ”sperm from a catalog”.

which, thanks to alternative methods, got two children with her husband, called for a boycott of the brand that he had previously been a major customer of the. Several followed his example.

Despite the fact that neither Stefano Gabbana or Domenico Dolce makes no secret of his homosexuality, returns often to the importance of a traditional family with mother, father and children created in the marriage bed.

Stefano Gabbana, Sophia Loren Domenico Dolce. Photo: IBL

But so is the brand's aesthetics and style deeply influenced by Sicilian culture, catholic symbols and the type of curvy women Italian movies with Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren pointed out. Their first collection in 1986 was called Vere donne (real women).

It is also the style with which they are now marketed in China.

had the Dolce & Gabbana planned to have a huge fashion show in Shanghai called The Great Show, with more than 300 different outfits. 1.400 local and global celebrities and influencers were invited.

On the chinese social medieplattformen Weibo launched the brand campaign #DGLovesChina with movies where a young asian woman, in a red low-cut slim dress, try to eat Italian food with sticks – pizza, pasta, and a giant cannolo, a traditional tubformat pastries that she have a problem with. A male voiceovers, asking ”is it too big for you?”

the Sexist and stereotypical! Angry comments poured in.

Maybe will chinese consumers to take them at the word and boycott Dolce & Gabbana, seriously.

Perhaps, had the resurrection been able to stay there, if the Dolce & Gabbana quickly made their apologies and apologized. But it is, as history has shown in the past, not the brand's strongest side.

On its own Instagramkonto called Stefano Gabbana in lieu of China for ”a skitland” and illustrated this with illustrative emojis and slightly less intelligible rambling that ”China Uncaring Dirty Smelling Mafia” in a ”private” conversation.

on social media. Screenshots were taken. The popular Instagramkontot Diet Prada, which made its mission to keep track of the stupidity in the world of fashion, the spread of both the films and his word.

Dolce & Gabbanas of the pr department claimed that the account has been compromised. No one believed it. The fashion show was cancelled. Several chinese fashion sites stopped selling their clothes.

a Few days later, Dolce & Gabbana recanted in a video where they dressed in black, literally washes his hands and apologize. They love China, they said.

Previously, have their crises only caused a ripple on the surface which is not damaged their business. But perhaps the chinese consumers to take them at the word and boycott Dolce & Gabbana, seriously.

Protests against Dolce & Gabbana in London. Photo: REX/IBL