Dear Stefano Gabbana, apology is not enough

Cultural stupidity. That’s how we describe Stefano Gabbana’s action that resulted in D&G cancelled show in Shanghai. A week ago, Diet Prada posted several screenshots of D&G co-founder Stefano Gabbana engaging in a racist conversation about Chinese. The post went viral in Weibo.

As @dolcegabbana prepares to mount their next runway show in Shanghai this coming evening (7:30PM) and the rest of Instagram fawns over what's sure to be an overly lavish "love letter" to China, we'll be wondering if we'll see chopsticks as hair ornaments, take-out boxes as purses, or even kimonos misappropriated as Chinese costume. Time will tell. For now, we'll let y'all simmer on this DM between Stefano and Dieter @michaelatranova (chronology is reversed in slides). Word has it that they're still in the process of model casting (over 200 Asian girls scheduled)...wouldn't let them walk the show if we were their agents lol. Also, curious what the Chinese government will think of their country being called shit basically...especially considering how strict they are on who to allow to enter the country on work visas based on a thorough social media background checks. * #DGTheGreatShow #DGlovesChina #runway #fashionshow #cancelled #racism #dolceandgabbana #altamoda #rtw #dgmillennials #stefanogabbana #shanghai #chinese #china #wtf #dumb #lame #asianmodel #asian #dietprada

56.1k Likes, 4,397 Comments - Diet Prada ™ (@diet_prada) on Instagram: "As @dolcegabbana prepares to mount their next runway show in Shanghai this coming evening (7:30PM)..."

Following the post, Chinese actors and actresses refuse to attend D&G show in Shanghai. Model agencies also refused to send their girls to walk the runway. Vogue China editor-in-chief Angelica Cheung reportedly flew back to Beijing. People are burning D&G goods and recorded it on social media.

The next day after the chaos, D&G issued an apology. At this point, the damage has been done. Gabbana has successfully insulted people of Chinese descents around the world. There are Chinese in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, and perhaps every part of the world. In Singapore, Chinese makes up more than 70% of the population. The Chinese descent that migrated from China is known as overseas Chinese.

In present day, overseas Chinese is part of the economy backbone. A lot of them are high net worth individuals. 4 out of top 5 Indonesia’s richest list are Chinese descents. Overseas Chinese also do not eat dogs, as Gabbana seems to believe. Dog eating culture is not a wildly popular practice. It started because people could not afford to buy food back then. If Gabbana wants people to stop consuming dog meats, perhaps he should fly back to the time where people are scraping to survive and donate some cash and food.

This is not the first time Gabbana engaged in hateful comments. The designer called Selena Gomez ugly on Instagram, feuded with Miley Cyrus, opposed IVF, made controversial comment on gay parenting (which is unnecessary and better kept personal), called Neapolitan ‘bad people,’ and insulted the entire Chinese population.

If D&G wants to recover from this mess, Gabbana needs to step down from the brand. Even so, the name ‘Gabbana’ in D&G will always be associated with vile and racist comments. D&G is better off without the ‘G’ and proceed with Domenico Dolce only.

Claiming his account was hacked and issuing an apology via Instagram video would not help much at the moment. Let’s not forget D&G’s interview with Business of Fashion where they stated, ‘I don’t want a Japanese designing D&G.’

The case of Stefano Gabbana is the prime example of how cultural stupidity affects business. A global business needs to maintain its reputation and be open about others because you never know who might love your products.