After Versace, Now Coach Faces China Backlash Over T-Shirts

Another day, another luxury brand runs afoul of political sensitivities in China.

Less than 24 hours after Versace apologised for T-shirts that defied China’s “One China policy,” American fashion label Coach is now facing backlash from Chinese consumers for a strikingly similar faux pas.

Coach did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Sunday, Versace apologised in an official Weibo post for a “wrong design”. Its T-shirts listed Hong Kong and Macau as countries, although both are special administrative regions of China. The T-shirts were taken off shelves on July 24 and have been destroyed, Versace said.

Coach and Versace’s T-shirts are the latest in a string of missteps by foreign companies in China. Last year, an advertisement from Dolce & Gabbana that showed a Chinese model struggling to eat spaghetti and pizza with chopsticks sparked outrage and a boycott of its products. Earlier this year, Leica Camera AG quickly distanced itself from a promotional video that prompted a backlash against the company in China for partially focusing on the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.