Dolce & Gabbana's Shanghai Show Canceled Following Instagram Controversy

Dolce & Gabbana has quickly canceled its Shanghai show on the day of the event, following claims that designer Stefano Gabbana has posted offensive Instagrams regarding China.

The controversial posts appeared on Stefano Gabbana's account following backlash to a series of videos the brand released. Titled "eating with chopsticks," the videos featured a model being instructed in Mandarin by a male voice how to eat Italian food, including pizza and spaghetti. Critics said the videos trivialized "China's centuries-old culture... depicting Chinese women in a stereotypical and even racist way" (via BBC and Jing Daily).

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Gabbana appeared to criticize China in a series of posts and messages, in an attempt to defend the "eating with chopsticks," and lament the fact that it had been deleted from Chinese social network Weibo. Diet Prada posted a screenshot of the Instagram exchange between Gabbana and Michaela Phuong Thanh Tranova:

According to WWD, actress Zhang Ziyi was one of the first stars to say that she would no longer be attending, while the China Bentley modeling agency revealed that the 24 models they represent who were meant to be walking in the show would now be boycotting.

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Apologizing for the posts, Gabbana wrote on his personal account, "My Instagram account has been hacked. My legal office is working on this. I love China and the Chinese culture. I’m so sorry for what happened." The brand's official page also shared two apologies regarding the incident:

This article originally appeared on Harper's Bazaar US.

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