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By Associated press
BEIJING – The co-founders of Dolce & Gabbana apologized Friday in a video on Chinese social media after promotional videos were considered racist and later posts on Instagram fanned the fury on one of the world's largest markets for luxury goods.
Domenico Dolce and Steffano Gabbana appeared in a video of nearly a minute and a half published on Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, claiming that they hoped to be forgiven and that they would do their best to better understand and respect Chinese culture.
"We have always been in love with China," said Dolce. "We love your culture and we certainly have a lot to learn, which is why we apologize if we made mistakes in the way we expressed ourselves."
The Italian fashion house was put to the test for insulting videos and insulting statements from the company's and Gabbana's Instagram accounts. He has accused hackers for Instagram comments.
The three promotional videos, which were removed from the company's Weibo account, feature a Chinese using chopsticks to eat pizza and other Italian dishes. Many Chinese social media users have described the videos as racist and outdated stereotypes.
In the apology video, the two designers wore a long-sleeved black shirt, like the one they often wore during parades, and sat cross-handed in front of a large conference table in a piece decorated with golden red wallpaper.
"We will never forget this experience and it will certainly not happen again," said Gabbana, adding, "We ask forgiveness from the depths of our hearts."
They end the video saying "sorry" in Chinese.
The violent reaction forced Dolce & Gabbana to cancel a major extravagant event earlier this week, which the company had touted as one of its biggest shows ever outside of Italy. Chinese purchases in China and abroad account for about 30% of global luxury goods sales.
Several screenshots show Gabbana's Instagram account referring to China with raw terms and emoji while he was defending promotional videos.
Zhang Ziyi, who starred in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," said on one of his social networking accounts that the Italian brand was "dishonored." Chinese pop idol Karry Wang and actress Dilireba, both brand ambassadors for the Asia-Pacific, have informed the company that they would terminate their cooperation.
The fallout spread to Hong Kong on Friday when Lane Crawford department store joined Chinese retailers who had stopped selling Dolce & Gabbana products.
"Regarding our customers, we have removed the brand of all stores in mainland China, online and in Hong Kong," Lane Crawford Chairman Andrew Keith said in a statement.
Dolce & Gabbana products had previously disappeared from major Chinese e-commerce sites, including Alibaba's Tmall and JD.com. A duty-free shop at Haikou Meilan Airport, on the Chinese island of Hainan, announced on social media that he had withdrawn all the products of the company.
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