The high-end clothing company Dolce & Gabbana has been a high-profile force in the fashion industry since its creation in 1985.  However, its success could potentially change as Italian designers and company founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have offended many across the globe in a recent interview with the magazine Panorama. Although the two male designers were in a relationship up until 2005, their apparent sexual orientations didn’t stop them from shaming same-sex families as well as fertility treatment leading to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) children.

“The only family is the traditional one,” the pair stated in the interview.

“You are born to a mother and a father — or at least that’s how it should be,” Dolce said. “I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog.”

Gabbana followed up on Dolce’s comment with his own similar opinion on the matter.

“The family is not a fad. In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging,” he said.

As their views came to light, thousands of shocked readers began speaking out against the brand. Elton John, 67, was one of the first celebrities to call the pair out for their offensive views.

“How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic’,” John wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday, Mar. 15. “Shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF – a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children. Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana.”

Ricky Martin, Victoria Beckham, and Courtney Love have all tweeted their support of the boycott, which is now a trending hashtag across Twitter and other social media networks. The hashtag #IlovemyIVFkids has also been thrown into the mix of tweets.

“[sic] ur voices R 2powerfull 2B spreading so much h8 Wake up, Its 2015 Luv urselves guys #BoycottDolceGabbana,” Martin wrote.

Beckham’s tweet was written more directly to John and his family.

“Sending love to Elton David Zachary Elijah & all the beautiful IVF babies,” she tweeted.

Gabbana responded to the comments with with more than a dozen posts of his own in which he defended his brand and his right to speak freely. Some of his posts even featured the hashtag #BoycottEltonJohn.

“#BoycottDolceGabbana… [sic] this is ️the real respect for a different opinion???? W la libertà di pensiero,” Gabbana posted on Monday, Mar. 16. The Italian phrase roughly translates to “Freedom of thought.”

One WJ senior, who chose to remain anonymous, agrees with John’s boycott. Not only does she personally disagree with the designers’ controversial statements, but she also thinks it is always a bad idea when companies bring personal politics into the public eye.

“It was a very poor business decision for Dolce and Gabbana. They’re going to lose tons of customers,” she said.

Later on Mar. 16, Gabbana released another statement on Instagram that was slightly more apologetic. By then #BoycottDolceGabanna was the top trending hashtag and had been used more than 35,000 times on Twitter. Gabbana’s #BoycottEltonJohn has only been used 1,600 times, according to a report by CNN.

“We firmly believe in democracy and the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that upholds it. We talked about our way of seeing reality, but it was never our intention to judge other people’s choices. We do believe in freedom and love,” he said.

Dolce followed with a second statement on Instagram that partially explained where his conservative views stem from. 

“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,” he continued. “That is the place where I [learned] the values of love and family. This is the reality in which I grew up, but it does not imply that I don’t understand different ones. I was talking about my personal view, without judging other people’s choices and decisions.”

While some support John’s call for boycott, others believe his actions are an attempt to limit free speech. Tweets with the hashtag #SupportDolceGabbana can be seen scattered around social media, and various comments advocating for the designers can be viewed on Gabbana’s Instagram posts. Multiple conservative politicians in Italy have begun to speak out in support of Dolce and Gabbana.

Roberto Formigoni and Carlo Giovanardi, both senators with the New Centre Right in Italy, even went as far as to say John is a member of the Taliban.

“I’m with Dolce and Gabbana and I applaud their courageous statement, this is freedom of expression. The campaign launched against the two stylists by Elton John is shameful and intolerable. Elton John is a Taliban, he is using against Dolce and Gabbana the same methods used by the Taliban against Charlie Hebdo,” Formigoni publicly stated, according to The Telegraph.

Giovanardi agreed and defended the designers’ views. 

“The gay Taliban are trying to boycott Dolce and Gabbana just because they dared to say that…every child has a right to a mother and a father,” he said.

John has continued to encourage his fans to boycott the company, with some fans digging even deeper to uncover the brand’s controversial 2007 campaign photo. The picture, which some critics believe to be depicting a woman being gang raped, has resurfaced on social media. This discovery has caused even more outrage towards the brand- leading to an even greater demand for answers from the designers. An article including this photo is linked below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03/18/dolce-and-gabbana0gang-rape-advert_n_6893044.html