Advice for any brand trying to break into a new market: hire staff that represents this market to oversee every aspect of your public relations. It is difficult to believe Dolce & Gabbana did this when they promoted #TheGreatShow – a Shanghai fashion show intended to engage the Chinese audience – with a video of a Chinese woman tasked to eat a cannoli with chopsticks and a man provocatively asking, “Is it too big for you?”
The video was taken down from Chinese social media site, Weibo, less than a day after it was put up, but trouble for the brand did not stop there. Steffano Gabbana said that his Instagram account was hacked, but the world still saw what appeared to be the second half of the brand saying things like, “So are you racist because you eat dogs?” Calls to boycott Dolce & Gabanna became so loud thereafter that the Italian fashion house had to abandon the fashion show and take down all evidence of chopsticks from Instagram.
Dolce & Gabbana relies heavily on stereotypical Italian imagery and the myths surrounding the country’s women, cuisine and religion to prop up its brand image with decadent campaigns set on Italian beaches and town squares, glamorising everything from Italian funerals to family dinners. With a few exceptions, like the 2016 “slave” sandal scandal, where the brand tried to make a luxury version of a sandal a roman slave would have worn, it works.
via @dolceandgabbana
The brand runs into trouble, however, when it tries to take the same culture-heavy approach to new destinations. Instead of the nuanced portrait of a country, with cheeky winks to Fellini, we get cringe-worthy content that focuses on the “otherness” of anyone who’s not Italian. Still, Dolce & Gabbana cannot afford to stick to what they know, because a world where large fashion houses do as they please is changing. With an ever-growing demand for luxury from the Middle East and Asia, houses cannot afford to hide out in the West.
Brand consultant, Deloitte, recently highlighted the importance of these growing markets in their 2018 Global Powers of Luxury Goods report. “Chinese luxury consumers represent a high proportion of the global luxury market and the rapid rise of a more affluent and fashion-savvy middle class is bolstering luxury consumption,” the report says. “In terms of per capita spending, China is one of the leading countries, thanks to the rising purchasing power of young millennials and Generation Z.” It went on to say that the Middle East is home to one of the largest young populations in the world and “their willingness to buy is stronger”.
In 2016, Dolce & Gabbana was praised for a collection that featured hijabs, abayas and clothing that conformed to Islamic modesty requirements. But their latest effort was as tone deaf as when Marc Jacobs defended putting dreadlocks on white models by saying that it is no different than black women straightening their hair.
If foreign brands really want to penetrate these markets then they should actually sell to their target groups by employing people that identify as part of these groups. Hopefully, that will help fashion houses to avoid coming across as rude tourists, or worse, racists.