Versace Apologizes To China For Politically Contentious T-Shirt, Weibo Erupts

Luxury fashion label Versace is in hot water due to the troublesome design of a t-shirt it sold in China.

The shirt, which listed famous “city-country” pairings, like “New York-USA” and “Beijing-China,” featured listings that seemed to recognize former European colonies Hong Kong and Macau as independent countries. This caused an uproar of criticism on Chinese social media, as these territories are officially controlled by China despite seeming to operate with a sense of autonomy.

Both the company and its artistic director Donatella Versace have issued apologies over the error.

“Versace reiterates that we love China deeply, and resolutely respect China’s territory and national sovereignty,” the company said, according to Reuters.

Versace also announced via its account on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, that it had recalled the shirts and destroyed them, as of July 24.

“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,” Donatella Versace said on her Instagram account.

In addition to her professional role within the company, she is also the sister of the firm's deceased founder, Gianni Versace.

The incident has also lost the company one of their biggest Chinese brand ambassadors, actress Yang Mi. Yang’s studio, Jiaxing Media, released an official statement about the end of her Versace contract on Weibo.

“China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty are sacred and inviolable at all times,” the statement read.

As of Sunday, the post was one of the biggest topics on Chinese social media site Weibo with 640 million views and counting. Weibo reportedly has more than 500 million registered users.