Dolce & Gabbana has apologised to Chinese customers for sparking a race row.
Dolce and Gabbana
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana - who are founders of the world-famous fashion house that has been making clothes for nearly 40 years - have recorded a message in Mandarin to apologise for the firm's recent advertisement that offered instructions on how to eat Italian typical foods with chopsticks.
Domenico said: "Our families always taught us to respect different cultures across the world and because of this we want to ask your forgiveness if we have made mistakes in interpreting yours."
Stefano said: "We want to say to all Chinese across the world and we are taking this apology and message very seriously."
The scandal caused the brand to be pulled from a fashion event at the Shanghai Expo Centre.
In the video advertisement, a model dressed in a red gown tries to eat a large cannoli with her chopsticks.
It was posted on the brand's official Weibo account - the popular Twitter-like social media platform in China - where the company has close to one million followers.
Social media users responded to the ad with accusations that Dolce & Gabbana was reinforcing cultural stereotypes and had no understanding of Chinese culture.
The row escalated after screenshots circulated of an Instagram user's alleged chat with the designers, who supposedly used five offensive emojis to describe China and insulted the country.
Following the backlash, the company said that the account had been hacked and that the legal office were investigating the matter.
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