Dolce and Gabbana magazine director quits over gay parenting row
Swide magazine editorial director Guiliano Federico quits over the fashion designers’ controversial comments.
In a statement on Facebook, he said the comments from designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were “in total conflict with my personal beliefs and with my commitments towards civil rights in my country“. Mr Federico has been part of Swide.com since 2008, and said: “I believe that fashion designers should stay in their own routes simply designing clothes, even if Stefano and Domenico always successfully aimed in putting their own personal values into their collections.”
The Italian fashion designers said last week: “We oppose gay adoptions. The only family is the traditional one.
“No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.”
Sir Elton John called for a boycott of the fashion label, saying: “Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again.”
Mr Federico’s full statement reads:
“Dear Facebook friends,
I’m writing here to inform you all that today I’ve presented my resignation as editorial director at Swide.com, Dolce & Gabbana’s magazine. It has been a difficult but clear decision. Over the last years, together with the editorial team and many independent contributors from all over the world, we’ve been telling tales from the past and the present about Italians and Italy, following the extraordinary way of Stefano and Domenico in making the Italian culture and traditions a pop statement.
I believe that fashion designers should stay in their own routes simply designing clothes, even if Stefano and Domenico always successfully aimed in putting their own personal values into their collections.
However recent personal opinions expressed by the two designers in the interview for Panorama magazine regarding the idea of family and the way human beings can create their own families, values that are central in the public Italian political debate, are in total conflict with my personal beliefs and with my commitments towards civil rights in my country.
For this reason I’ve resigned from my role as editorial director at Swide.com. It is time that each of us makes little actions to claim their own beliefs. I’m proud of being Italian, proud of our past and traditions, but I believe that Italy can look at a more modern and equal future for our citizens and children. All children.”
