MILAN (AP) – Milan fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has filed a defamation suit in an Italian court, seeking more than $ 600 million in damages from two American fashion bloggers who posted anti-Asian comments attributed to one of the designers who have led to a boycott by Asian consumers.
The lawsuit was filed in Milan Civil Court in 2019, but only became public this week when the bloggers posted about it on their Instagram account, Diet Prada. Their feed is widely followed in the fashion world for its cutting commentary on unoriginality in design and on social issues.
“This whole thing is a way of silencing Diet Prada, and personally silencing Tony (Liu) and Lindsay (Schuyler),” said Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School. who coordinates the bloggers. defense.
Attorneys for Dolce & Gabbana reached by the AP declined to comment on the case.
The case dates from November 2018, When Dolce & Gabbana faced a boycott in Asia after outrage over what were perceived as culturally insensitive videos advertising a major runway show in Shanghai and subsequent posts containing insulting comments in a private chat on Instagram.
The show was canceled in the backlash, including retailers pulling Dolce & Gabbana merchandise and Asian VIPs denying the brand.
Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana initially said Gabbana’s account had been hacked. The two later appeared in a video apologizing to the Chinese people.
“A public apology and a silent lawsuit really cancel each other out,” Safidi told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Italian defense attorneys this week filed a letter with the Civil Court of Milan arguing that Italy is not the correct location for the case as the blog was created in the United States and the alleged damage occurred in Asia.
The fashion house is claiming damages totaling more than half a billion euros, Scafidi said.
She said the fashion house is seeking € 450 million to restore its brand image since 2018 and damages of € 3 million for the company and € 1 million for Gabbana, to whom the comments were attributed. The suit also charges more than $ 8.6 million for the cancellation of the Shanghai show, an additional $ 8.6 million for staff expenses and $ 89.6 million for lost Asian sales from November 2018 to March 2019.
Since its IPO, Diet Prada, which has more than 2.5 million Instagram followers, has raised more than $ 38,000 for its defense.
In a statement, Liu and Schuyler both said they would not allow their platform, which was also noisy about the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter and recent attacks on Asians in the United States, to be silenced by lawsuits. .
Diet Prada will continue to be a platform to address these critical issues, Liu said.
Schuyler called on “public figures and brands to respond to public opinion and media criticism with progressive action, not lawsuits.”