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Versace has apologised after one of its T-shirts implied that Hong Kong and Macau are countries rather than autonomous regions. The luxury brand admitted that it had made a mistake and said it had withdrawn the item from stores.
“Versace reiterates that we love China deeply, and resolutely respect China’s territory and national sovereignty,” the company said in a statement.
The T-shirt, which was shared on social media, featured a list of city-country pairs, including “London-UK”, “New York-USA” and “Beijing-China”. Hong Kong was listed as “Hong Kong-Hong Kong” and “Macau-Macau”.
Chinese actress Yang Mi severed her relationship with Versace as a result, sharing a statement on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, to her 104 million followers.
“Our company and Ms. Yang found online that ‘some clothing designed by Versaceare suspected of damaging China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said a statement issued by her studio. “As a company of the People’s Republic of China and Ms. Yang as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, we feel very angry!”
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Donatella Versace herself said she was “deeply sorry for the unfortunate recent error”.
“Never have I wanted to disrespect China’s National Sovereignty and this is why I wanted to personally apologise for such inaccuracy and for any distress that it might have caused.” she said on Instagram.
From: Harper’s BAZAAR UK
