Written by Cameron Hillhouse; edited by Charlotte Lewis
How have Dolce and Gabbana managed to crawl their way back from cancellation to red carpets and celebrity styling after countless controversies?
The Italian fashion house, founded by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, is infamous for its classic over-the-top Italian design aesthetic and history of racism, homophobia and misogyny. The Italian Luxury Fashion label is ubiquitous in current pop culture, featuring at events such as; the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and the Grammys. Most recently, the brand dressed 12 celebrities for the Vanity Fair Oscars Party, including Ashley Graham, Emma Roberts, Jennifer Coolidge and Hilary Duff.
As of late, a tighter and tighter bond between the Kardashians and the luxury label can be observed. With D&G styling Kourtney Kardashian’s entire wedding, Kim Kardashian releasing an entire collection with the designers', Kylie and Kris Jenner wearing their designs on the covers of magazines, and also starring in campaigns for the brand. The Kardashian clan are firmly cemented within the current fabric of Dolce and Gabbana. This, intrinsically, is an interesting choice for both the brand and the Kardashians, as just a few years ago Stefano Gabbana allegedly called the Kardashians “the most cheap people in the world” in a now-deleted Instagram comment. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dolce and Gabbana’s controversial past:
September 2012-Sending racist earrings down the runway
During Dolce and Gabbana’s S/S 2012 fashion show, the label sent earrings down the runway which were reminiscent of Blackamoor statues in Italy or as they’re known outside of Italy "Aunt Jemima dolls”, a character from a minstrel show which idealized slavery and plantation life.
March 2015 - Speak out against gay parents
During an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama, Dolce stated; “We oppose gay adoptions — the only family is the traditional one”. He then went on to refer to children conceived through IVF (In vitro fertilisation) "synthetic children". Gabbana added that family “is not a fad.”
Their comments caused public uproar and even had celebrities such as Elton John and Ricky Martin speaking out against them; calling for a boycott of the brand. Dolce and Gabbana refused to apologise until months later when they asked for forgiveness in an interview with Vogue.
Dolce stated “I’ve done some soul-searching. I’ve talked to Stefano a lot about this. I’ve realised that my words were inappropriate, and I apologise. They are just kids,”. Following this the pair talked about how their Italian heritage and their childhoods in Italy always fed their brand and are what it’s built upon “It’s in our blood”.
Nevertheless, is this a sufficient excuse for making tone-deaf comments and sending racist accessories down the runway?
March 2016-"Slave Sandal”
Just a year after the previous controversy, Dolce and Gabbana decided to sell a pair of sandals on their website for $2,395, which they named the “Slave Sandal” (Shown below). In such a short space of time, the brand began to show a pattern of making contentious decisions, yet, betting on the fact that the controversy would blow over.
Dolce and Gabbana website Screengrab | Refinery 29
November 2018-
Dolce and Gabbana released an advertising campaign on their Weibo account, this would be by far the most detrimental controversy to date leading to them being shunned from Asian markets.
The campaign showed an Asian model struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks. The campaign was taken down within 24 hours following public outrage. Dolce and Gabbana were forced to cancel their runway show that was set to take place in Shanghai and many of the models and celebrities set to attend the show pulled out in protest. Many Asian 3rd-party resellers began pulling Dolce and Gabbana from their storefronts as well as Net-a-Porter who also removed Dolce and Gabbana from their site. Within a few days, Dolce and Gabbana posted an apology video. Business of Fashion later reported that the response to the video was largely negative.
During the following awards season in January-March 2019 Dolce and Gabbana’s designs were absent from red carpets.
So, after these controversies and many more, you might expect this would be the end for Dolce and Gabbana as we know it, perhaps the removal of Dolce and Gabbana from their positions at the company. It is interesting that immediately following the controversy stylists were not dressing their clients in the labels designs and many actively spoke out against the brand. Subsequently, they were not seen at any red-carpet events for almost a year following the controversy. But less than a year later we begin seeing them returning to celebrity styling and red-carpet events. So, the real question is does the fashion industry have amnesia when it comes to large heritage brands?
This is currently relevant as we recently saw Balenciaga boycotted for releasing an ad campaign which caused them to be accused of sexualising children. Is it just a matter of time before we see Balenciaga reaching its previous popularity level?
In early 2020, Dolce and Gabbana appointed Lucio Di Rosa, who has worked in the industry for decades and has extremely strong connections with stylists and celebrities, as head of worldwide celebrities and VIP relations. Following each of their controversies, Dolce and Gabbana eventually released apology statements. After appointment of Lucio Di Rosa, there was a shift in how the label would address its previous scandals. In 2020, they made donations to some charities and nonprofits that represent the communities they affected. Interestingly these changes and donations began taking place at least 2 years after the most recent backlash and after Gabbana deleted his personal Instagram account. Business of Fashion stated that many “industry insiders” credit Lucio Di Rosa with Dolce and Gabbana’s successful reintroduction.
The timing of Dolce and Gabbana’s generosity to these causes seems transparent in that they only occurred after taking on Di Rosa and that prior to this the brand made little effort to show that they were actually making changes. It is interesting to observe how effortless it is for the brand to return to celebrity styling seemingly unscathed. Returning seamlessly from controversy and dressing celebrities who are actively against everything they have shown they represent. At this year's Grammys, the most shocking pairing was between Lizzo and Dolce and Gabbana. Lizzo is an artist who champions inclusivity, LGBTQ+ rights and all-round positivity. Everything Dolce and Gabbana have proven they do not.
It goes to show how easy it is for stylists, celebrities and even society to turn a blind eye to where garments are coming from and what a brand represents if the garment itself is what they want.
While there are still many members of the public who disagree with Dolce and Gabbana being celebrated and call out celebrities who wear their garments on red carpets. The celebrity stylists and the celebrities choose to ignore these comments. In the past six months, it feels like Dolce and Gabbana are everywhere, from magazine covers to red-carpets, and social media. This is especially true following one of their largest recent campaigns where Kim Kardashian reimagined archival pieces and released an entire collection with the brand. This garnered a mixed response from the public where many were questioning why the collaboration had happened especially following her controversy with Balenciaga, confused as to why she would choose to join forces with another tendentious brand. It seems shocking that after putting out so much hate and using their massively large and powerful brand to do it, Dolce and Gabbana are still at the helm of the company.
So, can large brands such as Dolce and Gabbana and Balenciaga just keep following this pattern of creating controversy, apologising, donating some money then continuing as if nothing ever happened?
In the case of Dolce and Gabbana, this appears to be exactly the fashion.