The founders of the Italian fashion powerhouse Dolce & Gabbana issued an apology to the Chinese people after a growing backlash over Stefano Gabbana’s "racist outburst" caused some of the country’s leading luxury e-commerce platforms to pull the brand after the Italian company was accused of racism and stereotyping the Chinese in its latest advertising campaign.

The online video featured a Chinese model struggling to eat Italian foods using chopsticks, topped with sexual innuendos — the narrators asks, “Is it still too big for you?” — around an oversized cannolo.

The scandal was compounded by explicitly racist messages posted on Dolce & Gabbana’s official Instagram account and that of co-founder Stefano Gabbana in which he described China as a "country of s***."

In a statement on Wednesday, the company said that the accounts had been hacked: “We are very sorry for any distress caused by these unauthorized posts. We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China.

SMG Models, the agency that provided the model for the advertising campaign, apologized on its official Weibo account. The company said it did not have control over the outcome of the video shoot and that the agency and its models “resolutely oppose and boycott the D&G designer’s anti-Chinese behavior”.

The fallout forced the company to cancel a high-profile fashion show in Shanghai, after models and celebrities threatened to abandon the brand.

Ecommerce group Secoo Holding said on Thursday it had pulled Dolce & Gabbana products. “Because this is a racism issue . . . Secoo cannot co-operate with such a company without integrity and morality,” said a spokesperson for the company. Yoox Net-a-porter, the world’s largest online luxury platform by revenues, also suspended sales of all Dolce & Gabbana products on its Chinese websites, according to a person briefed on the decision.

At least two ecommerce groups in China pulled Dolce & Gabbana products from their sites, while others return no search results for the Italian brand’s name

Naturally, since the fallout threatened Dolce & Gabbana’s growth in the world’s largest luxury market, which Stefano Gabbana has singled out as one of its most important for sales, it was time for emergency damage control.

In a video released on Friday, Gabbana and Domenico Dolce spoke of their love and respect for Chinese culture.

“We offer our sincerest apologies to Chinese people worldwide,” said Gabbana. Dolce continued: “We hope our misunderstanding of Chinese culture can be forgiven.

“We’ve always been very crazy about China, we’ve visited it a lot. We’ve been to many cities. We love your culture.”

The video ended with the pair saying the single word “sorry” in Mandarin.

In addition to the online boycotts and canceled fashion show, protesters also targeted the chain’s flagship store in the heart of Milan’s fashion district. Video footage of a protest in Milan on Wednesday, which showed dozens of Chinese people holding “not me” sign outside the store on Via Monte Napoleone, has been widely circulated on social media.

The protesters included a Liu Xingyu, a male model who had appeared in one of the fashion house’s Milan shows.

The term “not me” has been adopted worldwide by people angered by Gabbana’s comment.

The company had previously apologised to “China and the Chinese people” and expressed regret that its Shanghai event had been cancelled, while Gabbana claimed that his Instagram account had been hacked.

On Thursday Gabbana shared a post by another Instagram user that defended the brand and its founders: “If Dolce & Gabbana was racist, they wouldn’t pay tribute a lot of times to China or Japan, or even having Chinese models on their shows runways or advertising … I’m a proud Albanian, I worked with them and never saw racism in them! I’m so sorry for people who always see only the half empty glass,” the post said.

The company also said the cancellation of its show in Shanghai was “very unfortunate not only for us, but also for all the people who worked day and night to bring this event to life”. Chinese celebrities, including Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi and actor and singer Chen Kun, who had been signed up to attend the multimillion-dollar event have since joined the chorus of criticism.

Still, Friday’s video may not have been enough to appease the fashion house’s critics. Chinese social media users have scorned the apology, saying it lacked sincerity.

“We have a right to reject your apology, go make money off other countries, you aren’t fit to make money in China,” wrote one Weibo user.

“The apology was posted by the hacker,” other users joked.

Meanwhile, as SCMP reports, a screenshot of a WeChat conversation between a customer seeking a refund and a representative from Dolce & Gabbana’s children’s line has gone viral on Chinese social media. In it, the woman says she no longer wants to wear the brand for fear people would “throw s***t at her” and asks for the 2,400 yuan deposit she paid the company to be returned.

Luckily for Italy, which needs another scandalous international standoff like ahole in the head, so far Beijing has opted out of getting involved directly in the issue, and foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday it was not a diplomatic issue and China did not wish to escalate it into one.

"Instead of asking the foreign ministry spokesperson, it is better to ask the ordinary people in China to see how they view this issue," said Geng.