07/02/19
Dolce&Gabbana Great Show had to be one of the most important shows of D&G history, with more than 300 looks, 140 performers and 1400 local celebrities. However, it did not go in the way it was hoped for.
What happened?
To promote the show, the stylists released on Weibo a three-video campaign featuring a young oriental model trying to eat Italian food with chopsticks. She is dressed in red, in a Dolce&Gabbana cocktail dress accompanied with golden jewels. The three videos show three different kinds of food: pizza, spaghetti and an oversized cannolo. The narrator on the background asks, “Is it still too big for you?”.
The attempt to promote the show was however a big failure, leading to people from China and from all around the world to accuse the stylists of being racists for the clichés shown and also sexist, thanks to the offensive sentence present in the videos.
Weibo users swarmed, accusing the brand of racism and the video was taken down by D&G but it haf already been shared widely on social media.
The reaction leads the famous Instagram account DietPrada to make an explicit comment about the inappropriateness of the campaign.
On the social media, a #BoycottDolce campaign becomes a trend, started above all by celebrities the likes of Elton John.
The answer of Stefano Gabbana is prompt and harsh. Quoting directly, “if the Chinese feel offended by a girl who spells pizza or pasta with chopsticks means that those Chinese feel inferior” and again “from now on in all the interviews I will do international I will say that the country of *poop emojis* is China” and more “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia”.
The responses are denied by Dolce and Gabbana, who defend themselves saying that the account has been hacked. Stefano Gabbana reposts the comments with a big red writing stating, “Not Me” and a comment of apology: “My Instagram account has been hacked. My legal office is working on this. I love China and the Chinese Culture. I’m so sorry for what happened”.
The reaction of Chinese people is however tough and retailers such Net-a-Porter or Secoo Holding drop the Italian brand from their inventories while E-commerce sites as JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall platform return no search results for the brand’s name.
Local celebrities such as actresses Zhang Ziyi and Li Bingbing or singer Wang Junkai refuse to participate to the show; the China Bentley Modeling agency refuses to let its models.
Dolce & Gabbana do not immediately respond to a request for comment on the moves but at the end both designers appear in a video apologising for their naivety, ending the video with a “sorry” in Mandarin.
The show was at the end cancelled.
Not an isolated accident.
D&G also made themselves famous because of insulting gay parents and calling Selena Gomez “ugly”.
Moreover, they also held a series of ad campaigns in the spring of 2017 in the cities of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing and Sao Paulo. The spots were all appreciated but the Beijing one, that caused a negative reaction from the Chinese public who criticised the representation of the city in its old features instead of the more modern ones. Photos of local tuk-tuk drivers and an elderly Chinese woman in plain clothing were called “low-quality” and “peasant-like” online. Social media users complained that the campaign focused excessively on old images of life in China in contrast to similar campaigns in Hong Kong and Tokyo that showed skyscrapers and neon lights.
The brand was also subject to critiques because of their hijabs and abayas collection that was seen as too much occidentalized and not directed to Muslim target. This collection was seen as a form of cultural appropriation, taking Islamic cultural elements and putting them out of their religious context.
It has to be said however that some people commented on this collection appreciating the openness to Muslim culture.
The effects.
China accounts for about a third of Dolce&Gabbana €1.3bn revenues and the country seems willing to abandon the brand after this “accident”.
Chinese millennials mostly shop online and are the group of luxury consumers which is growing the most, thus representing the future of the luxury sector.
D&G’s overall brand health score fell from +3.3 to -11.4 among Chinese consumers in about a week after the fashion show was cancelled according to YouGov’s BrandIndex, which measures public perception of thousands of brands across dozens of sectors. BrandIndex compiles overall brand health based on consumer feedback on quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation and reputation. It was also the biggest drop in public perception of a luxury fashion brand in China since market research company YouGov started to compile the BrandIndex in Asia about five years ago.
The new generation of millennials is highly propense to be vocal about national pride and this leads to strong answers to situation like the one that has happened to Dolce&Gabbana.
Moreover, this event has shown the magnitude and the importance of social media, which have a power that goes beyond simple communication.
Consumerism is growing in China, thanks to the different options offered to acquirers and the luxury sector proves equally growing. However, it is growing in a more perceptive and rational way. The celebrity effect is still working but cultural, gender and other kinds of diversity are becoming equally important factors influencing the different luxury brands.
Therefore, an evolution in terms of corporate social responsibility is needed.
To demonstrate these findings, it is symbolic to report the matter of the Shanghai-based writer Xiang Kai, who set over $20,000 worth of Dolce & Gabbana products from his collection on fire to protest the brand. As a caption to the flaming photos he posted online, Xiang wrote, “Some people say you’ve wasted a lot of money. I’m willing to waste this money for the nation’s dignity”.
However, some people claim that effects of a case like this are however not long lasting and this is what the two stylists hope for their future.
So, will they recover or not?
What now?
During the men fashion week, the stylists proposed a handmade collection and clothing in exotic skins such as crocodile leathers and fur. This is often seen as politically incorrect, but the matter does not seem to bother the designers.
Moreover, they proposed a brand-new collection of T-shirts celebrating the Chinese New Year, whit prints featuring cartoon pigs and patches proclaiming it to be the Year of the Pig.
People however accuse them to be trying to make money out of the people they’ve insulted and coming at another time, or another brand, the pieces may not have inspired a negative reaction, but context is everything. Some wondered if the new pieces were part of a poorly-executed attempt to curry favour back with Chinese customers.
It is not the first time they are trying to seek favour so deliberately. The rooster year they made rooster T-shirts and sweatshirts, last year they made dog T-shirts, and this year again.
The two designers have long bragged about them being different from other luxury brands. Their inclusivity is symbolized in their “family” of which all their collaborators and friends are part. But at the same time their pride can change into disturbing fierceness. And this event has been a lesson.
Giulia Galli
Dolce&Gabbana Great Show had to be one of the most important shows of D&G history, with more than 300 looks, 140 performers and 1400 local celebrities. However, it did not go in the way it was hoped for.
What happened?
To promote the show, the stylists released on Weibo a three-video campaign featuring a young oriental model trying to eat Italian food with chopsticks. She is dressed in red, in a Dolce&Gabbana cocktail dress accompanied with golden jewels. The three videos show three different kinds of food: pizza, spaghetti and an oversized cannolo. The narrator on the background asks, “Is it still too big for you?”.
The attempt to promote the show was however a big failure, leading to people from China and from all around the world to accuse the stylists of being racists for the clichés shown and also sexist, thanks to the offensive sentence present in the videos.
Weibo users swarmed, accusing the brand of racism and the video was taken down by D&G but it haf already been shared widely on social media.
The reaction leads the famous Instagram account DietPrada to make an explicit comment about the inappropriateness of the campaign.
On the social media, a #BoycottDolce campaign becomes a trend, started above all by celebrities the likes of Elton John.
The answer of Stefano Gabbana is prompt and harsh. Quoting directly, “if the Chinese feel offended by a girl who spells pizza or pasta with chopsticks means that those Chinese feel inferior” and again “from now on in all the interviews I will do international I will say that the country of *poop emojis* is China” and more “China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia”.
The responses are denied by Dolce and Gabbana, who defend themselves saying that the account has been hacked. Stefano Gabbana reposts the comments with a big red writing stating, “Not Me” and a comment of apology: “My Instagram account has been hacked. My legal office is working on this. I love China and the Chinese Culture. I’m so sorry for what happened”.
The reaction of Chinese people is however tough and retailers such Net-a-Porter or Secoo Holding drop the Italian brand from their inventories while E-commerce sites as JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall platform return no search results for the brand’s name.
Local celebrities such as actresses Zhang Ziyi and Li Bingbing or singer Wang Junkai refuse to participate to the show; the China Bentley Modeling agency refuses to let its models.
Dolce & Gabbana do not immediately respond to a request for comment on the moves but at the end both designers appear in a video apologising for their naivety, ending the video with a “sorry” in Mandarin.
The show was at the end cancelled.
Not an isolated accident.
D&G also made themselves famous because of insulting gay parents and calling Selena Gomez “ugly”.
Moreover, they also held a series of ad campaigns in the spring of 2017 in the cities of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing and Sao Paulo. The spots were all appreciated but the Beijing one, that caused a negative reaction from the Chinese public who criticised the representation of the city in its old features instead of the more modern ones. Photos of local tuk-tuk drivers and an elderly Chinese woman in plain clothing were called “low-quality” and “peasant-like” online. Social media users complained that the campaign focused excessively on old images of life in China in contrast to similar campaigns in Hong Kong and Tokyo that showed skyscrapers and neon lights.
The brand was also subject to critiques because of their hijabs and abayas collection that was seen as too much occidentalized and not directed to Muslim target. This collection was seen as a form of cultural appropriation, taking Islamic cultural elements and putting them out of their religious context.
It has to be said however that some people commented on this collection appreciating the openness to Muslim culture.
The effects.
China accounts for about a third of Dolce&Gabbana €1.3bn revenues and the country seems willing to abandon the brand after this “accident”.
Chinese millennials mostly shop online and are the group of luxury consumers which is growing the most, thus representing the future of the luxury sector.
D&G’s overall brand health score fell from +3.3 to -11.4 among Chinese consumers in about a week after the fashion show was cancelled according to YouGov’s BrandIndex, which measures public perception of thousands of brands across dozens of sectors. BrandIndex compiles overall brand health based on consumer feedback on quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation and reputation. It was also the biggest drop in public perception of a luxury fashion brand in China since market research company YouGov started to compile the BrandIndex in Asia about five years ago.
The new generation of millennials is highly propense to be vocal about national pride and this leads to strong answers to situation like the one that has happened to Dolce&Gabbana.
Moreover, this event has shown the magnitude and the importance of social media, which have a power that goes beyond simple communication.
Consumerism is growing in China, thanks to the different options offered to acquirers and the luxury sector proves equally growing. However, it is growing in a more perceptive and rational way. The celebrity effect is still working but cultural, gender and other kinds of diversity are becoming equally important factors influencing the different luxury brands.
Therefore, an evolution in terms of corporate social responsibility is needed.
To demonstrate these findings, it is symbolic to report the matter of the Shanghai-based writer Xiang Kai, who set over $20,000 worth of Dolce & Gabbana products from his collection on fire to protest the brand. As a caption to the flaming photos he posted online, Xiang wrote, “Some people say you’ve wasted a lot of money. I’m willing to waste this money for the nation’s dignity”.
However, some people claim that effects of a case like this are however not long lasting and this is what the two stylists hope for their future.
So, will they recover or not?
What now?
During the men fashion week, the stylists proposed a handmade collection and clothing in exotic skins such as crocodile leathers and fur. This is often seen as politically incorrect, but the matter does not seem to bother the designers.
Moreover, they proposed a brand-new collection of T-shirts celebrating the Chinese New Year, whit prints featuring cartoon pigs and patches proclaiming it to be the Year of the Pig.
People however accuse them to be trying to make money out of the people they’ve insulted and coming at another time, or another brand, the pieces may not have inspired a negative reaction, but context is everything. Some wondered if the new pieces were part of a poorly-executed attempt to curry favour back with Chinese customers.
It is not the first time they are trying to seek favour so deliberately. The rooster year they made rooster T-shirts and sweatshirts, last year they made dog T-shirts, and this year again.
The two designers have long bragged about them being different from other luxury brands. Their inclusivity is symbolized in their “family” of which all their collaborators and friends are part. But at the same time their pride can change into disturbing fierceness. And this event has been a lesson.
Giulia Galli