What were Dolce & Gabbana thinking?

Hours before their Chinese runway show was set to take place, one half of iconic design duo D & G has made the ultimate fashion faux pas, writes Bianca O’Neill.

After yet another racist gaffe this week, Dolce & Gabbana are back in the headlines.

And as a result, we are starting to experience what is only the start of a new wave of woke-Millennial resistance that huge fashion houses aren’t used to, or ready for.

Trouble began for D & G earlier this week when a promotional video for their upcoming Chinese runway show, featuring a Chinese model “clumsily” trying to eat pizza with chopsticks, was removed from Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Following the removal of the offensive video, Instagram fashion commentators Diet Prada allege that one half of the iconic label, Stefano Gabbana, sent particularly heinous direct messages to a fashion writer who called out the video on her Instagram stories.

Screen grabs of the conversation show Gabbana making derogatory comments about Chinese people, including the assertion that they eat dogs and are “dirty smelling Mafia”.

Of course, the story blew up.

Dolce & Gabbana shows are traditionally filled with celebrities modelling (Hailey Baldwin pictured) the clothes and attending the show. Picture: AFP/ Miguel Medina

Huge Chinese celebrities that had been confirmed to be attend the lavish fashion show went public with a boycott and the elaborate affair, targeted at Millennials (and rumoured to have cost them huge amounts of money, featuring 300 models and 1000 VIP guest invitations) was cancelled.

Within hours, Gabbana claimed his Instagram account had been hacked.

As luxury brands age, along with their notable founders, their approach to public commentary has remained the same; I say what I want, when I want. And if you don’t like it, too bad. And that’s the problem.

Ageing fashion icons like Stefano Gabbana have lived through decades when videos of girls trying to eat pizza with chopsticks wouldn’t bat an eyelid. But in today’s climate, the video seems particularly tone deaf. If this was meant to be a love letter to one of the world’s biggest players when it comes to buying power, it failed on all counts.

This perceived European superiority — particularly when it comes to fashion — is probably most prominent in the halls of Italian and French fashion houses, the self-ascribed “birthplaces” of modern couture.

Someone like Gabbana seemingly thinks nothing of ridiculing an entire country’s level of cultural sophistication and modernity. It’s likely that in Gabbana’s mind, China is all cheongsams and chopsticks.

But not even ignorance can save Gabbana now — or any other luxury brand, for that matter.

It is now rumoured that Stefano Gabbana (left) will step down, while Domenico Dolce (right) will take over the fashion house. Picture: supplied

Luxury goods are a booming business — particularly in China, where a recent study found that one third of all luxury purchases was made by Chinese consumers, and is expected to rise to a whopping 46 per cent by 2025.

But throw in an extravagant and expensive show meant to speak exclusively to an emerging and lucrative Millennial market, cancelled due to the alleged actions of one person, and what do you have?

Well, at least one thing has become clear: claims of hacking and a cut-and-paste apology — all Gabbana has offered up so far — probably won’t do the trick.

In 2018, young consumers demand more than tired, unimaginative campaigns communicating racist overtones proceeded by a lacklustre apology. And these cashed-up Millennials are more than happy to send the dinosaurs of the industry a powerful message — in the only way that makes sense to them. They’re voting with their wallets.

Unless luxury brands move with the times — and understand the new, woke world of social media egalitarianism — they’re doomed to fail.

No longer can they afford to exist solely in the rarefied air of an upper class echo chamber. Nowadays, even someone who has never bought a single one of their items — and perhaps, never will — can take down a whole empire in one fell Instagram story swoop.

Bianca O’Neill is a freelance writer.

@biancaoneill_