Sometimes it’s too hard to dig up contempt for Dolce & Gabbana with regard to their recent display of narrow-mindedness, specifically their controversial IVF stance (made more controversial by the fact that they’re two gay men who could easily benefit from non-conventional child procurement) and nonplussed styling of polarizing U.S. “First Lady” Melania Trump. Nonetheless, their carefreeness and confidence in themselves beams forth every time someone tries to come for them Taylor Swift for Katy Perry-style, and it makes it a real challenge to harbor any ill will.
The most recent case in point is the fashion house’s freshly served beef with Miley Cyrus, who rather courted the argument after complimenting her brother, Braison, on her Instagram for landing a modeling gig on the famed D&G runway. Unfortunately, instead of just leaving it at that, Cyrus decided to continue on by adding, “PS D&G, I STRONGLY disagree with your politics…. but I do support your company’s effort to celebrate young artists & give them the platform to shine their light for all to see!”
Oh Miley, don’t you know not to stoke the notorious and reactionary temper of an Italian? Maybe if she had, she would have anticipated Stefano Gabbana’s response to Cyrus’ hollow social media activism, which was: “We are Italian and we don’t care about politics and mostly neither about the American one! We make dresses and if you think about doing politics with a post it’s simply ignorant. We don’t need your posts or comments so next time please ignore us!!” Made all the more camp and endearing via Gabbana’s unmarred accent in written form, it’s evident that D&G still doesn’t give a fuck, almost relishing in other people’s hatred as though it’s skin-firming (hence, their tongue-in-cheek release of a “Boycott Dolce & Gabbana” t-shirt). Of course, this was already well-documented after they were among the first to release a line of hijabs. Don’t think Nike was the innovator. And maybe this is what can save D&G in spite of how increasingly adversarial Stefano seems to get: their continued ability to be sartorially avant-garde. Which could be why there’s no room left for such progressiveness in their personal views.
