Chinese media continuously boycott Dolce & Gabbana as there was only a few media personnel on the brand's fall/winter 2019 show at the recent Milan Fashion Week in Italy. The Chinese people seemed to stay away from the Italian luxury fashion house after its designer and co-founder Stefano Gabbana dissed China and released a controversial racist ad.
A large section of Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show venue used to be occupied by Chinese media in past events. Now, according to the South China Morning Post, the only used seats were only a third of its usual size.
Although the exact number of seats used by Chinese media was not confirmed, the Post conducted an informal survey that revealed only a couple of major publications' editors were present at the event. The only ones there were Marie Claire China and Harper's Bazaar China.
Marie Claire's editor revealed she only attended Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show for the brand's public relations team in China, and not to show support to the company. Other Chinese editors, on the other hand, admitted they had no interest to cover the house's exhibit in neither their publications nor on their social media pages.
Even the high-profile Chinese editors like Vogue China's editor-in-chief Angelica Cheung, who was there to attend the Milan Fashion Week, chose not to watch Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show. She only watched and seated at the front row of other shows that included Bottega Veneta.
There were even lesser numbers of Chinese faces on the catwalk. Only five Asian models walked for Dolce & Gabbana, which opposed the usual high number of Chinese models in the previous shows. There were also no top models that made their appearance on the show, not even Chinese influencers.
From the looks of it, the Chinese media, models, and other industries are not yet ready to get associated with Dolce & Gabbana again, thus the absence. The country, its people, and the brand's relationship is damaged by the brand's racist ad in November 2018, added with Stefano Gabbana's racist comments.
Diet Prada revealed the screenshot of Dolce Gabbana's comments, saying his "office is stupid as the superiority of the Chinese." He also called the country as feces by using its emoji, Paper reported.
The unfortunate event resulted in Dolce & Gabbana to cancel its major fashion show in Shanghai at the time. Nobody can say how long will the Chinese media and people boycott the brand and its possible long-term effects on its growth in the Chinese market.
