The dark side of Dolce & Gabbana: Kardashians pocket millions from brand despite past controversies

All is strife once more in the noble house of Kardashian.

Sister has called out sister, throwing down the gauntlet – in this case, most likely a sheer black opera glove – in a titanic feud over which of them has the right to wear their favorite Italian fashion designer.

For those who haven’t been keeping up with development in the family’s ‘reality show’, The Kardashians, a ferocious new front has opened in Kim and Kourtney Kardashian’s typically fiery relationship.

In short, after Kim, 42, was signed up as creative director for Dolce & Gabbana’s show in Milan last year and made the face of its latest advertising campaign, Kourtney, 44, was livid.

Why? Just six months earlier, the brand’s founders and co-owners, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, personally styled Kourtney for her wedding to rock-drummer Travis Barker. (The designers had classily created a wedding veil embroidered with an over-sized image of the Virgin Mary that was a replica of one of Barker’s myriad tattoos).

‘It feels awful that my sister used my wedding as a business opportunity,’ whined Kourtney on the Hulu series. ‘She chose the money over me.’

A Kardashian hatching a lucrative but tacky commercial endorsement deal? Perish the thought!

Worse still, Kim appeared to escalate matters further at the weekend when she apparently copied one of her sister’s other wedding outfits – a dramatic black corset dress with veil – when attending a Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) event in Puglia, Italy.

Worse still, Kim appeared to escalate matters further at the weekend when she apparently copied one of her sister’s Dolce & Gabbana wedding outfits – a dramatic black corset dress with veil (pictured).

If this all sounds to you like a shamelessly confected reality TV spat orchestrated to plug a brand with which the Kardashians have a valuable business relationship, you’re not alone.

This is how things tends to work in the relentlessly transactional world of the Kardashians – and, for that matter, of D&G.

Kourtney previously revealed that the Italian designers allowed her and husband’s families to use their Portofino estate and even their superyacht during their spectacularly gaudy nuptials. The two families reciprocated by parading around the fashionable Italian town during the four-day event wearing an ever-changing array of ostentatious D&G outfits.

The designers’ insistence that this was no sponsorship deal but that they were ‘simply hosting this happy event’ was contradicted by rumors a multi-million dollar deal had been agreed to pay the Kardashians and friends for their patronage.

Now, it seems puzzling that a company of D&G’s standing should be willing to hitch its fortunes so firmly to the trashy Kardashian wagon.

After all, it was only in 2018 that Stefano Gabbana reportedly responded to an online photo of the Kardashians by commenting, ‘The most cheap people in the world’.

What could explain such a dramatic turnaround?

Dripping in double-standards, the fashion world is notoriously forgetful when it comes to the foibles of its stars. But signors Dolce and Gabbana, aged 64 and 60, have now notched up so many scandals that even the most fickle fashion-world insiders have had to pay attention.

Accused of racism, homophobia (despite both men being gay and having been a couple for 18 years until 2004), misogyny, fraud and general jaw-dropping insensitivity, it seems the pair cannot afford to be so picky when it comes to their celebrity endorsements nowadays.

The design partnership was founded in the early 1980s after its two founders met in a Milan nightclub and put on their first show using one of Dolce’s bedsheets as a curtain.

Soon, however, the brand would be synonymous with sexy and opulent designs – rising to become one of the most feted luxury fashion houses in the world.

It might seem puzzling that a company of D&G’s standing should be willing to hitch its fortunes to the trashy Kardashian wagon. (Pictured: designers Stefano Gabbana, left, and Domenico Dolce with Kim in Milan last year).

After all, it was only in 2018 that Stefano Gabbana reportedly responded to an online photo of the Kardashians by commenting, ‘The most cheap people in the world’.

But signors Dolce and Gabbana have now notched up so many scandals, it seems they cannot afford to be so picky when it comes to their celebrity endorsements. (Pictured: Kourtney Kardashian and husband Travis Barker in Portofino, Italy, for their wedding last year).

They’ve dressed everyone from Cardi B and Madonna, to Blake Lively and the Princess of Wales, charging as much as $60,000 for one of their extravagant frocks.

But ‘The Boys’, as the pair were once known in tribute to their youth and energy, have grown up – and not in a good way.

Certainly, their compulsion to shock hasn’t aged nearly so well as the bottles of Barolo Riserva sitting in their various Italian cellars.

The Boys first got into serious trouble back in 2007 when they produced a print advert of a shirtless man pinning down a skimpily-dressed woman by the wrists as a trio of other men impassively look on.

Italian advertising regulators banned it for promoting ‘gang rape’ and it was condemned by everyone from Amnesty International to the Italian textile workers’ union. The designers, with their customary insouciance over criticism, shrugged that they were simply trying to ‘recreate a game of seduction’.

Then in 2012, the pair managed to offend a good chunk of the Hong Kong population after locals – but not foreigners or mainland Chinese people – were curiously barred from photographing the window displays of the city’s two D&G stores, sparking large street protests.

Amid speculation that the mysterious ban was to spare Chinese Communist officials the embarrassment of being snapped shopping in such an expensive store, the company eventually apologized.

The following year, the designers caused another stir, this time in Milan when they sent their all-white models down the runway for their 2013 Spring/Summer collection wearing headscarves and large earrings featuring cartoonish, colonial-style ‘Blackamoor’ images of black women.

The brand denied racism and said the designs had a valid cultural history in Sicily. That may be true, critics acknowledged, but it still showed a remarkable tone-deafness to changing sensitivities surrounding race.

And the problem was, it didn’t stop there. In 2016, the designers once more blundered into the race minefield when they named a $2,395 shoe from their latest collection the ‘slave sandal’.

The Boys first got into serious trouble back in 2007 when they produced a print advert of a shirtless man pinning down a skimpily-dressed woman by the wrists as a trio of other men impassively look on. Italian advertising regulators banned it for promoting ‘gang rape’.

The designers caused another stir in Milan when they sent their all-white models down the runway for their 2013 Spring/Summer collection wearing headscarves and large earrings featuring cartoonish, colonial-style ‘Blackamoor’ images of black women.

Worse, however, came in 2018 when, to promote a major show in Shanghai, they released a series of videos featuring a Chinese model clumsily trying to eat Italian dishes such as spaghetti and pizza with chopsticks.

If it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it failed spectacularly as, within hours, #BoycottDolce was trending on Chinese social media site Weibo, with D&G stood accused of trivializing the nation’s culture.

Controversy then turned into catastrophe when leaked Instagram messages from Stefano Gabbana revealed him calling China the ‘country of [poop emojis]’ and ‘Ignorant Dirty Smelling Mafia’.

Gabbana claimed he had been hacked – but, given his generally wild use of social media over the years, many found the excuse hard to believe, especially since the offending posts sounded just like him.

In the end, the pair issued a craven apology for the adverts. ‘We have always been in love with China,’ they said. ‘We love your culture and we certainly have much to learn. That is why we are sorry if we made mistakes in the way we expressed ourselves.’

But the mea culpa came too late.

Celebrity Chinese endorsers deserted the Shanghai D&G event along with assorted models and influencers. The show was eventually cancelled, leaving the designers with a multi-million dollar financial loss which experts predicted could run into billions given the huge importance of China to luxury product sales.

And, money, say critics, is the only reason The Boys – both billionaires in their own right – ever apologize for anything.

In 2009, the pair’s purported greed was splashed across the media when they were charged with tax evasion in Italy after moving nearly 250 million euros to tax-friendly Luxembourg. They were found guilty in 2013 and handed prison sentences – but the convictions were overturned the following year.

Worse, however, came in 2018 when, to promote a major show in Shanghai, they released a series of videos featuring a Chinese model clumsily trying to eat Italian dishes such as spaghetti and pizza with chopsticks.

If race was the only area in which they’d provoked an outcry, one might excuse them simply as products of a country which some say has a particularly bad problem with racism.

But no, they’re nothing if not equal opportunity offenders.

In 2015, the pair gave an interview to Italian magazine Panorama in which Dolce struck out against IVF treatment, and – bizarrely – gay parenting and adoption.

He described children born through IVF as ‘synthetic’ and IVF pregnancies as ‘rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog’.

‘You are born to a mother and a father, or at least that’s how it should be,’ he added.

After celebrities such as Elton John and Courtney Love expressed outrage – the former calling for a boycott of D&G – Gabbana branded Elton a ‘fascist’ on Instagram.

Dolce eventually apologized and blamed his strict Catholic upbringing for the ‘inappropriate’ words, prompting Elton to accept the apology and announce he looked ‘forward to wearing their designs once again’.

Others were less easily appeased. In 2017, D&G added misogyny to their rap sheet when Gabbana admitted he’d been one of those who ‘body shamed’ pop star Lady Gaga after she exposed her bare midriff while performing at the Superbowl.

He later apologized only, the following year, to cause offense again.

Responding to a social media post inviting people to rate various outfits worn by actress Selena Gomez, Gabbana wrote ‘È proprio brutta!!!’ (‘she’s so ugly’).

In 2015, the pair (pictured with Kim this year) gave an interview to Italian magazine Panorama in which Dolce struck out against IVF treatment, and – bizarrely – gay parenting and adoption.

In 2017, D&G added misogyny to their rap sheet when Gabbana admitted he’d been one of those who ‘body shamed’ pop star Lady Gaga after she exposed her bare midriff while performing at the Superbowl. (Pictured: Kim in D&G bra).

Gabbana has, incidentally, also outrageously claimed that sexual harassment is a non-issue in Italy.

Certainly, the pair have made clear they enjoy controversy.

This was perhaps most apparent in 2017 when, pilloried for dressing then-First Lady Melania Trump, they responded simply by putting out their own $245 ‘#Boycott Dolce & Gabbana’ T-shirts.

Meanwhile, commercial demise has been confidently predicted with each new scandal, only for the brand to bounce back into the ring.

Some put it down to their sheer creative brilliance. Others say they merely benefit from the hypocrisy and vanity of their ultra-rich clients.

Clients who, however much they pontificate over the latest woke fad in public, are ultimately far more worried about looking stunning at an awards ceremony than showing solidarity with gay parents, Chinese culture or Selena Gomez.

Even so, Dolce & Gabbana is not making the profits it once did and it’s clear that many people will not forgive its owners’ past sins.

But there’s one fractious family that doesn’t seem to care – and not even if the couple dressing them still think the Kardashians are ‘the most cheap people in the world’.