Dolce & Gabbana is saved from cancellation (again)

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Dolce & Gabbana has been revived from the obscurity of cancellation (again). It’s easily understandable if you missed the Italian fashion house being canceled as the fashion industry’s outrage cycles at the brand have become so rote that they border as predictable as pre-fall and resort season.

Although Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce rose to global prominence in the ’80s and ’90s by defying conventional trends, fashion, like all industries beholden to the increasingly illiberal uberwealthy, would become too woke for its own good. While the industry made some crucial corrections, mainly cracking down on anorexia after model Luisel Ramos died on the runway from starvation-induced heart failure, the fashion world became increasingly skeptical of fun alongside real danger.

Over the years, cancellation cycles were instigated by racy ads portraying prostrate women seduced by men about to dominate her (in later years, the wokes would recognize this as kink-shaming), the gay designers publicly opposing gay adoptions, and a number of so-called ethnically problematic stunts, culminating with the mother of all fashion industry faux pas: pissing off China.

The woke may wax poetic about climate change and racial justice, but there’s nothing the moneybags who descend on Milan and Paris every year love more than the Chinese market that propels million-dollar brands into billion-dollar behemoths. When D&G faced charges of racism for a cheeky ad of a Chinese model failing to scoop Italian food with chopsticks, the mob set the narrative. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian were bullied into deleting shots of her in Dolce, and retailers ranging from brick-and-mortar to the internet dropped the brand.

But the duo didn’t bow to the mob. When other top-tier designers refused to dress Melania Trump, Dolce and Gabbana became her most vocal champions in the industry. After the pair boasted of the then-first lady’s appearances in their designs on Instagram, yet another call came from the masses to boycott the brand. The label’s response? They sold a $245 T-shirt declaring, “#BoycottDolce&Gabbana.”

Although the ascendant fashion of millennial and Generation Z buyers telegraphed less of an interest in ostentatious wealth and more in minimalism and environmentally friendly wears, the high fashion industry was forced into hibernation with the onset of the pandemic, which didn’t just cancel entire fashion seasons but the very reasons for shelling out five figures for the gaudiest of avant-garde goods.

But even with the delta variant forcing the masses back into masks, the society set can’t wait. The Met Gala, finally due to return as an even more tone-deaf spectacle than it was before, cleaned the slate. This allowed the A-listers to flaunt for the photographers at D&G’s umpteenth “comeback,” this time in Venice, Italy. The outrage mob will return for them, for sure, but while the socialites remain high on the serotonin of returning to high society, D&G will remain safe.

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