Dolce & Gabbana sue Diet Prada Instagram account over cancelled Shanghai show

A luxury fashion giant that cancelled a show after its promotional video was branded racist is taking the case to court.

A popular Instagram page that pokes fun at the fashion industry is being sued by a giant Italian luxury fashion house for hundreds of millions of dollars after posts alleging racism that led to a boycott by Asian consumers.

Dolce & Gabbana is suing the Diet Prada Instagram page, seeking 3 millions euros ($A4.64 million) for the company, one million euros ($A1.55 million) for its co-founder, and more than 556 million euros ($A860.38 million) in damages.

The company filed the suit in 2019, but it didn’t become public knowledge until the page’s admins posted about it last week.

“On Monday we filed a defence of our freedom of speech in answer to defamation claims brought in a Milan court by Dolce & Gabbana,” a post on the page, run by Tony Liu and Lindsay Schuyler, read on Friday.

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Diet Prada posted a redacted and translated version of court documents.

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At the heart of the lawsuit is some of Diet Prada’s posts from 2018.

The posts came as a result of criticism of a Dolce & Gabbana promotional video for a November 2018 Shanghai show that depicted a Chinese model struggling to eat various Italian foods with a pair of chopsticks, while a Chinese language voiceover commentated with sexual innuendo about the food’s size.

Hours before a planned Dolce & Gabbana show in Shanghai, Diet Prada posted a direct message conversation featuring Stefano Gabbana, which purportedly included critical comments about China and its culture.

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Diet Prada has amassed more than 2.5 million followers since launching in 2014.

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In the messages posted by Diet Prada, Mr Gabbana allegedly refers to the video as a “tribute”.

Representatives claim Mr Gabbana’s account had been hacked before the alleged messages were sent.

The runway show was cancelled and Mr Gabbana and Domenico Dolce released a video apology saying they “certainly have much to learn”.

A few months after making a public apology, the company sued Mr Liu and Ms Schuyler.

The pair are being represented in their defence by Italian law firm AMSL Avvocati, with support from the pro-bono clinic at Fordham University’s Fashion Law Institute.

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Fashion designers Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce at a 2010 Milan Fashion Week show. Picture: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

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The institute’s founder and director Professor Susan Scafidi accused Dolce & Gabbana of engaging in “forum shopping” by filing the lawsuit in its home country of Italy, when the Diet Prada admins are based in the US and the alleged damage occurred in China.

She said the company wanted a home ground advantage because “Italian and US anti-defamation law differ in their specifics”.

“However, we are confident that Diet Prada is on the right side of both law and history, and we are honoured to help them demonstrate that harmful stereotypes are never in style,” Prof Scafidi said.

She told the Associated Press the company’s lawsuit included claims of damages to the tune of 556.8 million euros ($A861.6 million), including 450 million euros ($A696.3 million) spent rehabilitating the brand’s image, 89.6 million euros ($A138.6 million) in lost sales, and 17.2 million euros ($A26.6 million) for the cancelled Shanghai show and associated staff expenses.

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Figurines representing Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana on display at a Dolce & Gabbana shop in Beijing the day after the company’s cancelled Shanghai show was scheduled to take place. Picture: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP

AMSL Avvocati lawyer Marco Amorese is “convinced that Italian courts will know how to protect” the freedom of speech and criticism that the defence will rely on and suggested Dolce & Gabbana should have limited their response to the apology rather than opting for the lawsuit.

“The critique of cultural paradigms that are deemed inadequate should promote change and not give rise to judicial actions aimed at silencing it,” Mr Amorese said.

Mr Liu said he didn’t want the lawsuit to get in the way of Diet Prada continuing its set goals.

“Having cultivated Diet Prada as a platform where stereotypes are laid bare and stories from the larger BIPOC community are brought to the fore, is one of the things I’m most proud of,” Mr Liu said, adding “Diet Prada will continue to be a platform to elevate these crucial issues.”

Diet Prada has racked up more than 2.5 million followers since it first began posting in 2014.

A GoFundMe page accepting donations for Diet Prada’s legal defence passed its $US44,000 ($A57,117) target on Monday morning.