YNAP joins Chinese retailers in dropping Dolce & Gabbana after charges of racism

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Nov 22, 2018

Yoox Net-A-Porter has stopped retailing all Dolce & Gabbana products on the China version of its ecommerce platforms in wake of the Italian house having been accused of racism by Chinese consumers. After an Internet firestorm, and multiple announcements by major Chinese music and film stars that they would not attend a planned mammoth Dolce & Gabbana show on Wednesday evening in Shanghai, the Milan fashion house cancelled the event.

 
YNAP confirmed Thursday that it is no longer selling any Dolce & Gabbana or Dolce & Gabbana Kids on its Chinese site, as of yesterday.
 
The Anglo-Italian etailer followed two giant Chinese groups, JD.com and Alibaba, in stopping selling Dolce & Gabbana, after the Internet exploded with anger in reaction to a trilogy of videos posted on social media by Dolce & Gabbana of an Asian model eating Italian pizza, pasta and cannoli with chopsticks. These were widely criticized as culturally inane, racially insensitive, and ineptly sexist.

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JD.com now has no Dolce & Gabbana on its site; while Alibaba’s search engine responds, “Sorry we can’t find Dolce & Gabbana.”
 
While there is now no longer any link to any Dolce & Gabbana products on Net-A-Porter China. Though the brand is still available on other international sites of the group.

Dolce & Gabbana products can still be seen on the group’s discount division Yoox, but readers can no longer click through and buy them.
 
YNAP declined any comment, but in the fallout out from the Internet firestorm Dolce & Gabbana ignited, is believed to be monitoring the situation before making any further moves.
 
So, the fallout from its ill-considered video series looks set to continue.