Iconic entertainer Elton John has called for a boycott of luxury Italian label Dolce & Gabbana after Sicily born Domenico Dolce made some controversial comments about “traditional families,” same sex parenting and IVF in Italian magazine Panorama’s website.
“You are born and you have a father and a mother. Or at least it should be like this, that’s why I am not convinced by chemical children, synthetic babies, wombs for rent,” said Dolce, who is gay and was once in a relationship with his now business partner Stefano Gabbana.
“I’m gay, I can not have a child,” Dolce told Panorama. “Life has its natural course, there are things that must not be changed. And one of these is the family.”
John, who has two children – Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, 4, and Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John, 1 – born via a surrogate with his husband David Furnish, took to Instagram to slam the comments, writing,
“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic’. And shame on you for wagging your judgemental little fingers at IVF … Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana.”
Other celebrities such as Sharon Stone and the creator of the television show Glee, Ryan Murphy, have thrown their support behind John.
The label have since released a statement about the comments,
“We believe firmly in democracy and we think freedom of expression is essential for that. We talked about our way of looking at the world, but it was not our intention to express a judgement on other people’s choices. We believe in freedom and love,” Gabbana said.
Dolce & Gabbana’s received much praise for their motherhood themed show at Milan Fashion Week earlier this year. Models walked the catwalk with babies hoisted on their hips and Italian model Bianca Balti walked the catwalk while heavily pregnant.
