Bella Hadid knows a fashion disaster when she sees one.
The 29-year-old supermodel took to Instagram this week to slam the Italian fashion house after Dolce & Gabbana unveiled a menswear collection with a lineup of models described as “50 Whites.”
The criticism began in the comments section of a video posted by fashion creator Elias Medini (also known as Rias), criticizing the brand’s casting choices for its fall/winter men’s show during Milan Fashion Week.
“It’s embarrassing when people who are shocked are actually supporting this company,” Hadid wrote. “I do all the modeling/stylisting/casting.”
Her first comment received over 60,000 likes. In a follow-up, she wrote that the brand was “already canceled…years of racism, sexism, bigotry, xenophobia…are we still shocked?”
In his video, Medini pointed out that the show, titled “The Portrait of Man,” seemed to feature a homogeneous cast of models (and for that matter, it didn’t even include blonde models), in sharp contrast to the collection’s promotional tagline, which celebrates “the unique identity of every man.”
Other fashion insiders echoed Hadid’s sentiments. “This is what happens when those in power continue to make excuses for brands that are consistently racist, homophobic, and xenophobic in order to continue to accept advertiser dollars,” said stylist and editor Gabriela Karefa-Johnson.
“Microaggressions become macroaggressions and mistakes become modus operandi,” Karefa-Johnson continued. “There’s no bigger bag than this brand. Their agenda is no longer hidden.”
Content creator Teffi Pessoa simply commented, “YUCK,” while rapper Skepta, the current face of Louis Vuitton, commented, “Zzzz.”
A representative for the brand contacted Page Six Style for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
This latest firestorm adds a new chapter to Dolce & Gabbana’s checkered history. In 2018, the brand was forced to cancel a major show in Shanghai after co-founder Stefano Gabbana allegedly sent a DM calling Chinese people “ignorant, dirty, stinky mafia.”
This followed a controversial promotional campaign that showed a Chinese model struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks.
In 2015, the designers faced backlash for criticizing IVF, surrogacy and same-sex adoption in an interview with an Italian magazine, calling children born through IVF “chemical children” and “synthetic children.”
They also personally criticized celebrities, calling Selena Gomez “so ugly,” branding Chiara Ferragni’s wedding dress “cheap” and calling the Kardashians “the cheapest people in the world.”
Despite the controversy, Dolce & Gabbana remains a staple for many stars, including some of Hadid’s closest friends. Kim Kardashian has maintained a particularly close relationship with the brand, launching a Skims x Dolce & Gabbana collection in 2024, but demand caused the website to crash.
In a press release at the time, the designers praised their “long-standing friendship” with Kardashian and cited their shared values of “inclusivity and body positivity.”
