Donatella Versace Apologizes to China for Offending Country With T-Shirt

Versace, as well as its artistic director Donatella Versace, are apologizing.

The Italian luxury brand issued an apology on Sunday (August 11) after one of the T-shirts in the brand’s collection was criticized on China’s social media platform Weibo for identifying the autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau as countries.

On the shirts, there are a list of “city-country” pairs, including “New York-USA,” “Beijing-China,” “Hong Kong-Hong Kong,” and “Macau-Macau,” which has been criticized. The company says that they have stopped selling the shirts, and also destroyed them.

“Versace reiterates that we love China deeply, and resolutely respect China’s territory and national sovereignty,” they said in a statement.

“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,” Donatella said in a statement.

Versace‘s brand ambassador Yang Mi revealed she was ending her contract because of the issue: “China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty are sacred and inviolable at all times,” she said in a statement.