MILAN (AP) – Milan fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has filed a protective suit in an Italian court seeking more than $ 600 million in damages from two U.S. fashion bloggers who have backed anti-Asian views. it was given to one of the designers who took a boycott with Asian customers. .
The suit was filed in Milan civil court in 2019 but did not go public this week when the bloggers posted about it on their Instagram account, Diet Prada. Their food is widely followed in the world of fashion for its cutting-edge statement on unity in design and on social issues.
“This whole affair is a way to try to keep the Prada Diet quiet, and personally simulate Tony (Liu) and Lindsay (Schuyler),” said Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School , which coordinates the bloggers ’defense.
Lawyers for Dolce & Gabbana who reached the AP declined to consider the case.
The case dates back to November 2018, when Dolce & Gabbana opposed a boycott in Asia after a riot over what were seen as insensitive cultural videos prompting a major runway demonstration in Shanghai and subsequent posts of embarrassing comments in private conversation on Instagram.
The show was canceled in the background, which included retailers pulling Dolce & Gabbana merchandise and Asian VIPs dismantling the brand.
Photographers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana initially said Gabbana’s account was blocked. The two later appeared in a video apologizing to the Chinese people.
“A public apology and a silent lawsuit are breaking my mind,” Safidi told the Associated Press on Saturday.
Italian defense lawyers filed a summary this week in a Milan civil court, arguing that Italy is not the right place for the case, given that the blog has been released in the United States United and that the alleged damage occurred in Asia.
The fashion house is seeking damages worth more than half a billion euros, Scafidi said.
She said the fashion house is seeking 450 million euros spent to restore brand image from 2018 and damage 3 million euros for the company and 1 million for Gabbana, to which the ideas belonged. The suit will also be seeking more than 8.6 million euros for the cancellation of the Shanghai concert, another 8.6 million euros for staff spending and 89.6 million euros for lost Asian sales from November 2018-March 2019.
Since going public, Diet Prada, which has more than 2.5 million Instagram followers, has raised more than $ 38,000 to protect it.
In a statement, Liu and Schuyler both said they would not allow their platform, which has also been vocal about the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter and recent attacks on Asians in the United States, to be silence with trial.
“The Prada Diet continues to be a platform to raise these critical issues,” Liu said.
Schuyler called for “public figures and logos to respond to the opinion of the public and media critics with positive action, not a lawsuit. ”