The founders of Dolce & Gabbana demand a video apology in China

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Dolce & Gabbana co-founders on Friday called for China's "forgiveness", trying to save a crucial market for the luxury brand after a brutal reaction against its latest advertising campaign.

The Italian fashion house canceled a parade in Shanghai on Wednesday after celebrities and social media users threatened to boycott the campaign, which on Thursday led ecommerce companies to remove items from Dolce & Gabbana.

Furor is a setback for one of Italy's best-known fashion brands in China, where LVMH's rivals Louis Vuitton (LVMH.PA) in Kering (PRTP.PA) Gucci seeks to develop.

Chinese buyers account for more than a third of global spending on luxury items and increasingly shop at home rather than traveling abroad.

Users have slammed the video campaign in which a Chinese woman has trouble eating pizza and pasta with chopsticks, while the narrator offers cooking lessons in a condescending tone.

The blunder was compounded by the online broadcast of screenshots of a private conversation on Instagram, in which the designer Stefano Gabbana refers to "China Ignorant Dirty Smelling Smelling Mafia" and uses the smiling emoji poo to describe the country. The company said that Gabbana's account had been hacked.

On Friday, in an apology video, Gabbana and co-founder Domenico Dolce said that they had "thought seriously" and that they were saddened by the impact of their remarks.

"Faced with our cultural misunderstanding, we hope to be able to get your pardon," said Dolce, speaking in Italian, in the video of the two designers sitting side by side.

The 85-second video with Chinese subtitles was posted on the Chinese Twitter platform, Weibo.

Gabbana also apologized and offered a formal apology to Chinese people around the world. The designers finished the video by apologizing in Mandarin.

"We will never forget this experience and this lesson, and that sort of thing will not happen again," Gabbana said.

This is not the first blunder of Dolce & Gabbana in China, where the brand was criticized on social media last year for a series of ads showing the grim side of Chinese life.

Other upheavals followed in China without seeming to cause lasting damage, especially at brands like Kering's Balenciaga, which apologized in April after a violent reaction about how some Chinese customers had been treated in Paris.

However, the crisis at Dolce & Gabbana showed no signs of easing on Friday. Retailer Lane Crawford said he would remove the brand from his stores and online sites in mainland China and Hong Kong once customers return Dolce & Gabbana items.

Most of the comments posted in the apology video on Weibo were also critical.

"We do not have to accept your excuses. Go make money in other countries, there is nothing for you in China, "wrote a user.