Early Wednesday morning, in a chat on Instagram between a netizen named "michaelatranova" and someone using the personal account of Stefano Gabbana, one of the brand's co-founders, Gabbana allegedly made insulting references toward China and Chinese people.

Dolce & Gabbana posted an announcement on its Weibo account saying: "Our Instagram account has been hacked. So has the account of Stefano Gabbana. Our legal office is urgently investigating. We are sorry for any distress caused by these unauthorized posts. We have nothing but respect for China and the people of China."

Indignation arose among Chinese netizens, with many calling on Wednesday for the show to be canceled. A-list celebrities such as Chen Kun, Huang Xiaoming and Li Bingbing said they would not attend

"Self humiliation", wrote actress Zhang Ziyi on her Weibo account. [Photo/Weibo account of Zhang Ziyi]

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi wrote "Self humiliation" on her Weibo account, alongside a picture responding to Gabbana's remarks. 

Many Chinese modeling agencies, as well as models who were scheduled to walk the show, also said they would not be attending the event after the incident.

Dolce & Gabbana canceled “The Great Show”, originally scheduled to be held last night in Shanghai, hours before it was scheduled to begin.

The brand did not give further details about the cancellation.

D&G products pulled from Chinese e-commerce platforms

Major Chinese e-commerce platforms have removed all products under the brand of Dolce and Gabbana since Wednesday evening, according to a report by jinronghu.com.

They include three e-commerce giants Tmall, JD and Suning, cross-border e-commerce platforms NetEase Kaola and Ymatou, luxury e-commerce companies Secoo and Vip.com, and Yhd.com.

That means outside of the official China website of the Italian fashion company, the brand's major e-commerce sales channels in the Chinese market have been practically cut off.

According to financial data released by the company in September, its revenue declined to 1.290 billion euros in the fiscal year ending March 31, from 1.296 billion euros in the previous fiscal year.

While Italy, accounting for 24 percent of its total sales, is still the company’s main market, other parts of Europe, the Americas, Japan, China and other regions accounted for 27 percent, 13 percent, 6 percent and 30 percent of its total sales.