Criticism Continues Against Dolce & Gabbana Remarks On Family

Billionaire fashion duo Dolce & Gabbana broke the internet earlier this weekend when they made several controversial comments on the subject of nontraditional families in an interview titled “Long-Live the [Traditional] Family" for italian magazine Panorama. Coming out against the use of surrogate mothers while claiming children need “a mother and a father,” Dolce said he thought children born via IVF were "synthetic" from "wombs for rent" and that "the only family is the traditional one." Gabbana added “family isn’t a fleeting trend, in it there’s a sense of belonging.”

The remarks drew created a fiasco after harsh criticism from singer songwriter Elton John (who has two sons through I.V.F. with his husband, David Furnish) who took to Twitter and Instagram over the weekend urging a boycott of the label. “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic.’ Calling both designers' comments "archaic" he said he would never wear their clothes. "I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana.”

The hashtag gained momentum with several celebs like Ricky Martin, Victoria Beckham, Courtney Love, Martina Navratilova joining in on the boycott. Gabbana responded calling for “freedom of thought” and called Elton John a fascist while advocating for a boycott of his music.

Ryan Murphy, executive producer of American Horror Story and Glee told The Hollywood Reporter, that he was joining the boycott against the label's clothes.

Dolce, 56, and Gabbana, 52 later issued an official statement on Monday in an effort to curb the backlash,

Gabbana said: "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 judgment on other people's choices. We believe in freedom and love."

In a separate statement Dolce added: “I’m Sicilian and I grew up in a traditional family, made up of a mother, a father and children. I am very well aware of the fact that there are other types of families and they are as legitimate as the one I’ve known. But in my personal experience, family had a different configuration.”

The fashion power-duo, who are worth $1.65 billion each and are the 27th richest men in Italy. It is unclear whether the outcry against the label will have any substantive effect.