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Tag: D&G

  • Dolce & Gabbana opens first DG Beauty boutique in Southeast Asia

    Dolce & Gabbana opens first DG Beauty boutique in Southeast Asia

    Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana has opened its first DG Beauty boutique in Southeast Asia at Ion Orchard, in Singapore.

    The 92sqm store will host a selection of fragrances, and for the first time will exclusively sell its makeup line in-store.

    Each corner of the boutique is adorned with details reflecting the brand’s “La Casa” DNA,  allowing customers to immerse themselves in Dolce & Gabbana’s aesthetic.

    According to the brand, its makeup collection will be luxurious, high-impact, and sensorial, inspired by its Italian heritage. Fragrances such as Light Blue, The One, and K by Dolce & Gabbana, will also appear alongside the brand’s latest novelties like the Fruit Collection, Dolce Rose, and Deva Cassel as the face of the fragrance collection.

    The DG Beauty boutique in Singapore will also offer the exclusive Velvet fragrance line, a collection of perfumes inspired by its designers’ vision of Sicily and the Mediterranean.

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  • D&G opens boutique in Osaka Japan

    D&G opens boutique in Osaka Japan

    Luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana has opened a new D&G Osaka store. The two-level, 905sqm #DGLovesOsaka boutique at Midosuji is designed to reflect the unique local features of Osaka while still representing the brand’s heritage, with red marble and pink onyx finishings touched off by pink rugs and wallpaper. A large baroque-styled mirror is a centrepiece of the decor.

    The #DGLovesOsaka boutique stocks ready-to-wear collections and accessories for men, women, and children.

  • Dolce & Gabbana chaos continues

    Dolce & Gabbana chaos continues

    Dolce & Gabbana has cancelled a high-profile catwalk show in Shanghai following an outcry over what many in China perceived to be a racist marketing campaign. The Italian brand products have now been dropped by e-commerce giants Alibaba, JD and Yoox Net-A-Porter. Leading Chinese e-commerce platforms Alibaba and JD.com were joined by Suning, VIPshop, Secoo and Netease in dropping the Italian fashion house’s products from sale.

    Hong Kong-based luxury department store operator Lane Crawford has also joined Chinese retailers in dropping Dolce & Gabbana products after it offended Chinese partners and internet users this week.

    Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford, told the Post: “With respect to our customers, we have taken the decision to remove Dolce & Gabbana from all stores in China, online and in Hong Kong.”

    The decision would take effect at 1pm on Friday, Lane Crawford said.

    Amazon China and Yoox Net-A-Porter have also removed products, with the latter dropping the brand from its Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter and Yoox.com platforms.

    Meanwhile, high-profile Chinese celebrities and KOLs including actors Li Bingbing, Chen Kun, Diliraba, Zhang Ziyi and actor-singer Huang Xiaoming were among a host of stars distancing themselves from the brand and vowing not to buy D&G products.

    A video posted on Weibo Monday of a Chinese model attempting to eat Italian food with chopsticks was taken down after less than 24 hours, but widely shared on both Chinese social media platforms and Instagram.

    The social media storm was made worse by comments attributed to Stefano Gabbana and Dolce & Gabbana’s official Instagram accounts on Wednesday, the day the brand’s #DGTheGreatShow catwalk presentation was scheduled to take place in Shanghai.

    In what Dolce & Gabbana claims was the result of a hack, the brand’s social media accounts featured derogatory comments about China and Chinese internet users.

    Though quickly removed, screenshots of the comments were widely shared on Chinese social media, along with the trending hashtag #BoycottDolce. The Weibo hashtag #DGTheGreatShowCancelled has been read 540 million times, and mentioned in 74,000 discussions.

    Show invitees have been informed that the 500-look runway event will no longer go ahead.

    China Bentley Modelling agency released an official statement saying 24 of their models who were booked to walk in D&G’s first Shanghai fashion show were boycotting the event.

    The Chinese government also stepped in with the Cultural and Tourism Department ordering Dolce & Gabbana to cancel the event just a few hours before it was scheduled to take place.

    Chinese consumers have flooded social media platforms Weibo and WeChat criticising the brand and posting videos and images of D&G products being destroyed, burned and used to clean floors and line animal litter trays. Security guards and police officers have been stationed outside Dolce & Gabbana stores in Beijing and Shanghai.

    This marks the second high-profile outcry over racist messaging from Dolce & Gabbana in only 18 months. A previous #DGLovesChina campaign depicted Beijing in a way that Chinese internet users felt looked backwards and underdeveloped.

    Both Gabbana and co-founder Domenico Dolce have been accused of making politically insensitive statements, from referring to babies conceived by in vitro fertilisation as “synthetic”, to refusing to support the right of gay parents to adopt.

    The duo has also described gladiator sandals as “slave sandals” and were quick to endorse First Lady Melania Trump.

    Gabbana in particular has a history of posting insensitive comments on social media, and came under fire for calling Selena Gomez “ugly” on Instagram in June, and the Kardashian family “the most cheap people in the world” in July.

    Though the designer duo have been known for using social media to voice their controversial opinions, upsetting Chinese consumers could have far-reaching commercial consequences.

    According to Bain & Company’s latest report on the luxury market, Chinese consumers account for an estimated 33 percent of global luxury goods spend, a share that is likely to hit 46 percent by 2025.

    Seeing as Chinese support can make or break a brand’s performance, how the label manages the controversy will be critical for its future success in the market.

    Dolce & Gabbana could not yet be reached in China or Milan for comment.

    According to a post published on Dolce & Gabbana’s Weibo account on November 21, the event has been rescheduled, and the brand has apologised for the inconvenience caused.

    Dolce & Gabbana reposted Gabbana’s ‘Not Me’ screenshot on its Weibo account, accompanied by the following statement, which mirrors the brand’s post on Instagram: “Our Instagram account has been hacked. So has the account of Stefano Gabbana. Our legal office is urgently investigating. We are very sorry for any distress caused by these unauthorised posts, comments and direct messages. We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China.”

    Last Friday, Dolce & Gabbana released a video of apologies, but the situation is not getting any better. The video was received as a way for the brand to preserve their own economic interests.

    Now, increasing attention has been given to similar episodes related to other brands, and media are populated with advertising campaigns, which show how while targeting overseas markets, lack of knowledge of local culture could be fatal to a business.

    Among the cases mentioned over the weekend, Chanel and its luxury boomerang, and Dior and Jennifer Lawrence featuring Mexican heritage without Mexican women (cultural appropriation), Zara and Nazi symbolism, and many more. However, Dolce & Gabbana case has been the first one with such global economic consequences.

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  • Dolce & Gabbana Sparks Racism Backlash With Chinese Ad

    Dolce & Gabbana Sparks Racism Backlash With Chinese Ad

    Italian luxury retailer Dolce & Gabbana is facing a growing backlash in China after an ad campaign that was meant to promote the brand in arguably its most valuable market has been decried as racist.

    Amidst growing calls to boycott the brand on Chinese social media, popular e-commerce sites, including Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com, have seemingly removed listings for Dolce & Gabbana products. Searches for the brand on those sites at the time of this writing returned no results. NetEase’s Kaola said that it had taken down the brand’s listings.

    The growing backlash forced the brand to postpone a fashion show in Shanghai just hours before it was set to take place on Wednesday, after models and celebrities reportedly said they would not attend the event. Dolce & Gabbana’s ambassadors in the region, Karry Wang and Dilraba Dilmurat, who is of Uigher ethnicity, have ended their contracts with the company.

    The uproar follows the publication of a series of ads on Chinese social media platform Weibo earlier this week, featuring a young Chinese woman attempting and failing to eat traditional Italian food, such as pasta, pizza and a cannoli, with chopsticks. The ads were released as part of the brand’s #DGLovesChina campaign ahead of the scheduled fashion show in Shanghai, but critics decried the videos as playing on racist stereotypes. The ads are still visible on Dolce & Gabbana’s Instagram page.

    The controversy was made worse after screenshots of direct messages purportedly from founder Stefano Gabbana’s Instagram account were leaked, showing offensive comments about China and Chinese people. Both Gabbana and the brand have denied that the messages were sent by the Italian designer, saying the accounts were hacked, but many have expressed scepticism, given Gabbana’s track record of getting into verbal spats on social media.

    “I love China and the Chinese culture. I’m so sorry for what happened,” Gabbana wrote in an Instagram post that asserted his account was hacked.

    The boycott is especially troubling, since China is such a crucial market for luxury retailers. A 2017 McKinsey report found that Chinese consumers account for nearly a third of the global luxury market, spending RMB 500 billion (approximately $99 billion) annually. The consulting firm expects Chinese consumers to account for the majority of the growth in the global luxury goods market in the coming years, and by 2025, the country is forecast to make up 44 per cent of the total global market.

    At the same time, McKinsey said that Chinese luxury consumers increasingly rely on word of mouth from friends and family to make purchase decisions, even more than the in-store experience. This creates treacherous terrain for global luxury brands, and Dolce & Gabbana is not the only one to have made a culturally insensitive or simply out-of-touch decision, causing offense in its most valuable market.

    Ikea, among many other brands, has faced criticism for listing Taiwan as a separate country on its packaging or website, while Mercedes-Benz ran into problems for quoting the Dalai Lama in an ad campaign. China considers the spiritual leader to be a dangerous voice for separatism in Tibet.

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  • Dolce & Gabbana net profit soars, revenues up 9%

    Dolce & Gabbana net profit soars, revenues up 9%

    Dolce & Gabbana closed the financial year 2016/17 on March 31, 2017 with a turnover of 1.296 billion euros, a 9% increase on the previous year, according to the balance sheet consulted. D&G Srl, which controls the group, obtained a 57.6 million euro dividend from Dolce & Gabbana Holding.

    The latter oversees Dolce & Gabbana Trademarks, owner of the group’s brands, and Dolce & Gabbana Srl, in charge of the label’s operations in Italy and abroad.

    D&G’s consolidated balance sheet showed a net profit of 80 million euros, around four times higher than the 17.93 million achieved by the company in 2015/16, and an EBITDA of 168 million euros.

    This result is due largely to an increase in sales, particularly in Italy, which represents 24% of total turnover, with the rest of Europe making up 27%, the Americas 13%, and Japan 6%.

    Dolce & Gabbana’s strong presence in its domestic market has led the firm to further its initiatives abroad.

    On 4 October , the brand organised a runway show in the Isetan Department Store, Tokyo, for which the creative duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana designed a special collection.

    In the same month, the label also opened its first outlet store in Mexico, in the Premium Outlets Punta Norte mall, in the northwest of the country.

    For the holiday season, the brand has plans for a large-scale operation with London-based luxury department store Harrods. These will include the launch of exclusive products, as well as a number of in-store interventions organised by Dolce & Gabbana from 2 November to 28 December, such as in stores-in-stores, a Christmas tree, window displays and a traditional Italian market.

    Breaking down the brand’s results by distribution channel, Dolce & Gabbana’s wholesale increased 8.7% in 2016/17, retail grew 7.1% to 769 million euros, while licensing revenue fell 9.2% to 61.2 million euros.

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  • Shiseido perfume ambition revealed

    Shiseido perfume ambition revealed

    Japanese cosmetics group Shiseido is aiming to become one of the world’s top five perfume makers in five years, up from its current seventh spot.

    New acquisitions will help Shiseido perfume market share grow – along with a step-up in marketing, especially online.

    Shiseido has beaten Spain’s Puig to win Procter & Gamble‘s Dolce & Gabbana perfume (D&G) licence, which generates 400 million euros ($445 million) in annual revenue. It aims to grow this to 1 billion euros in 10 years.
    Shiseido group chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa Louis Desazars, who was previously US head of Shiseido’s Nars make-up brand, says there is a new mindset and energy in the group.

    The D&G licence business will compensate for Shiseido’s loss this year of the Jean-Paul Gaultier perfume licence as part of an agreement with Puig when it bought the French brand in 2011.

    Shiseido says the D&G perfume business helped it more than double its market share instantly to 5.8 per cent from 2.2 per cent. It is aiming to reach 9 per cent in five years.

    On top of its own skincare lines, Shiseido makes perfume under licence for fashion brands Azzedine Alaia, Elie Saab, Issey Miyake and Narciso Rodriguez. The group has created a separate branch for niche brands it has acquired such as Serge Lutens last year, and the skincare and cosmetics brands Laura Mercier and ReVive in July.

    The global perfume market grew 2.9 per cent last year, while niche perfume brands saw their sales surge 15 per cent.

    Estee Lauder has also placed niche perfume brands it has bought, such as Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle and Le Labo, in a separate division.
    Including perfume, skincare and makeup, Shiseido ranks fifth globally behind L’Oreal, Coty, LVMH and Chanel, and is bigger than Clarins. In skincare alone, Shiseido says it aims to join the top three globally, up from its current fifth spot.