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Over the weekend, Elton John publicly denounced Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana on Instagram for dropping a blatant critique of in vitro fertilization and gay families. "How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic,'" Elton John's Instagram post reads. "And shame on you for wagging your judgemental [sic] 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." The protest inspired a hashtag, #BoycottDolceGabbana, and Courtney Love and Victoria Beckham have voiced their support of Elton John on social media.
According to the Telegraph, the protest sparked from comments that surfaced from an interview Domenico Dolce did with an Italian magazine. "What I call children of chemistry don't convince me, synthetic children," Dolce told Panorama. "Wombs for hire, (are a) choice from a catalogue. And then you have to explain to this child who is the mother. To procreate ought to be an act of love, today not even psychiatrists are ready to confront the effects of these experiments."
In the report, the Telegraph notes that Dolce & Gabbana's last two collections have showcased traditional families. The brand's FW15 collection featured both a pregnant model and models walking down the runway with their own children, and the most recent menswear collection featured grandmothers with their grandsons.