Luxury fashion label Versace recently faced backlash on social media for selling T-shirts that identified Hong Kong and Macao as independent countries.
The T-shirt, images of which were widely posted on Chinese social media, featured a list of “city-country” pairs, including “New York-USA”, “Beijing-China” and “Shanghai-China”. But it also described the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macao as “Hong Kong-Hong Kong and Macao-Macao.”
Following the controversy Chinese actor Yang Mi ended her contract to represent Versace saying the clothing was suspected of harming China’s sovereignty.
However Versace accepted its mistake and apologised for the same. It also further notified that it had stopped selling the t-shirts and had destroyed them.
“It’s our company’s negligence, and we express deep apology for the impact it caused. Versace reiterates that we love China and resolutely respect China’s territory and sovereignty,” Versace said in a statement on Weibo.
Donatella Versace, the sister of the fashion house’s late founder, Gianni also posted a personal apology on Instagram
“Never have I wanted to disrespect China’s National Sovereignty and this is why I wanted to personally apologize for such inaccuracy and for any distress that it might have caused,” she said.
