Versace becomes the latest fashion house to find itself in the midst of a clothing controversy.
As seen in the tweet below, Versace came under fire after one of its T-shirts appeared online, a tee that implied Hong Kong and Macau were their own countries and not the "Special Administrative Regions" that they are — both are territories of China, but both maintain governing and economic systems that are separate from those of mainland China. After newly-signed Chinese brand ambassador singer/actress Yang Mi informed the house that she would end her contract with the company, Donatella Versace came out with a formal apology to China and its citizens. She wrote on Instagram:
"I am deeply sorry for the unfortunate recent error that was made by our company and that is being currently discussed on various social media channels. 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."
This couldn’t have come at a worst time, as just hours after the T-shirt found its way to Weibo, Hong Kong police began tossing tear gas into crowds of pro-democracy protesters during the 10th straight weekend of demonstrations.
Italian luxury brand @Versace apologizes on Sunday for mislabeling China’s #HongKong Special Administrative Region and #Macau Special Administrative Region as countries on one of its T-shirt designs pic.twitter.com/V8Uyk2GXEu
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) August 11, 2019
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