Dolce & Gabbana kicked out of Yoox Net-a-porter and of Chinese e-commerce
After yesterday's polemics about the commercials and offenses on Instagram, China's revenge has not been delayed and hit hard
November 22nd, 2018
UPDATE: The boycott of Dolce & Gabbana has crossed the Chinese borders, starting to assume ever larger and worrying proportions. The Yoox Net-a-porter Group has, in fact, just announced and, confirmed to WWD, that it will withdraw the Italian brand's products from its platforms: Net-a-porter, Mr. Porter and Yoox.com. It is the first global retailer to leave the designer duo in the wake of insults to China appeared on the Instagram account, probably hackered, by Stefano Gabbana. What other fashion giant will follow him? Surely the repercussions of the D&G-China feud will not end soon. Meanwhile, police and security guards have been placed in the Dolce & Gabbana physical stores in both Beijing and Shanghai as precautionary measures.
After yesterday's controversies on the spots considered sexist and racist exacerbated by offenses on Instagram, we all expected the repercussions of the Dolce & Gabbana case and now they have arrived: the products of the designer duo have been banned from e-commerce Chinese. The boycott movement started from the giant e-commerce Alibaba and expanded with a very rapid domino effect to giants like Tmall, JD.com and Suning, then to NetEase Kaola, Ymatou, up to Secoo, Vip.com, Yhd.com and Xiaohongshu (which also eliminated all past posts that spoke of the Italian company).
- In case you missed: Everything you need to know about the D&G vs China case -
What about the physical shops?
They seem intent on doing the same and, for example, even the duty free store at Haikou Airport Meilan has posted a picture of empty shelves on his account, saying he has withdrawn all the goods of the label. After the cancellation of the big show in Shanghai this is another very hard blow for D&G, an endless nightmare that risks turning into a diplomatic case. In fact, if the e-commerce platforms did not want to comment on their decision, on the other hand, a declaration came from the Communist party to the newspaper People's Daily, which, without ever mentioning Dolce & Gabbana directly, said:
The company that wants just making money in China without respecting the Chinese people, is condemned to failure.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, tries to throw water on the fire, thus responding to the controversy against the brand: The issue is not one of diplomacy, and we are hoping that it does not become a diplomatic issue. You should ask common people what they think about it."
Many users are posting videos in which they destroy the garments of the Sicilian duo, but also the celebrities respond with clear positions. Like Wang Junkai, member of the note boyband TFBoys, who, communicating his retirement from the parade-event scheduled for November 21, said: "Our motherland is more important than anything else, we appreciate the strength and beauty of our heritage cultural". According to Diet Prada, even Ariana Grande would stop following the official brand account.
The renewed apologies by Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce have been void, and they continue to reiterate their love for China and the Chinese, expressing their regret for the affair. "What happened today is really unpleasant" - they write - "not only for us, but for all those who worked night and day to bring this project to life .. Our dream was to realize in Shanghai an event that was a tribute to China, which tells our story and our vision". Will they ever be able to forgive and re-raise the fate of their business in the China?