Italian design duo appear to be trying to atone for remarks made last year criticising gay couples who have children

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana appear to be trying to make amends for derogatory remarks they made last year about same-sex couples who have children with the release of a line of handbags and T-shirts celebrating gay and diverse families.

Gabbana’s Instagram account carried photographs of the new line, including a black handbag depicting two fathers and three children. Another photograph showed models wearing T-shirts with similar images, including of families with two mothers. The label used the hashtag #dgfamily.

The Dolce & Gabbana website is selling a T-shirt for €395 (£300) featuring an image of the two designers and their menagerie of pets with the #dgfamily hashtag.

An image from Stefano Gabbana’s Instagram account

It was a starkly different message than one that landed the pair – who used to be a couple – in hot water last year. In an interview in March with the Italian magazine Panorama, Dolce made inflammatory remarks about gay families, saying he was not convinced by what he called “synthetic children” and “wombs for hire”.

“We oppose gay adoptions,” Dolce said in the interview. “The only family is the traditional one.” He went on to describe children born through IVF as “children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalogue.”

The comments infuriated Elton John, who has two children born with the help of IVF and a surrogate. After initially calling for a boycott of the designers, John later said he forgave them after Dolce apologised.

“I’ve done some soul searching. I’ve talked to Stefano a lot about this … They are just kids,” Dolce told Vogue in August.

Photos of the new line were released days before Italian politicians are expected to vote on a proposal that would recognise same-sex civil unions and – in some cases – extend parental rights to couples in a same-sex union.

It is far from clear whether the measure will pass and opponents of the legislation are expected to stage a large “family day” protest against the measure in Rome on Saturday.

A spokesman for Dolce & Gabbana said the designers would not comment on the new line or whether it was connected to the upcoming vote. The bags and shirts are expected to be in stores soon, he said.

Online reaction to the designs was mixed, with some Instagram users suggesting the label was trying to make up for lost sales from gay customers.