The background is a criticized advertising campaign that was launched in 2018.
In the commercial, a Chinese model, with great effort, tried to eat canneloni and pizza with chopsticks.
Fashion bloggers Tony Liu and Lindsay Schuyler argued that the commercial was stereotypical and sexist and drew criticism from Dolce & Gabbana on their Instagram account Diet Prada.
They also published a screenshot of chat messages with insults against Asians that allegedly came from chief designer Stefano Gabbana.
The events caused a number of retailers and celebrities to boycott the clothing brand.
Chief designers Domencio Dolce and Stefano Gabbana later went out and apologized.
Lost revenue
Now, however, they have chosen to sue the fashion blogs for libel and demand 600 million dollars, equivalent to five billion kronor in damages.
Dolce & Gabbana believes that they have lost large revenues due to non-sale and canceled fashion fairs as a result of Diet Prada's publications.
"Try to keep quiet"
The clothing brand submitted a defamation report to the Milan Civil Court as early as 2019, but it is only recently that Diet Prada has chosen to tell about it in public.
"It's a way of trying to silence Diet Prada and Tony (Liu) and Lindsay (Schuyler)," said Susan Scafidi, director of the American Fashion Law Institute, which assists fashion bloggers with legal assistance.
Since the lawsuit became known, Diet Prada's around 2.5 million followers have collected just over SEK 300,000 in legal fees.