Domenico Dolce has insisted that democracy is about being free to make personal choices, following his IVF scandal.
The fashion star and his designer partner Stefano Gabbana became embroiled in a war of words with Sir Elton John over the weekend following an interview they gave to Italian magazine Panorama. In it Dolce called kids born via IVF "chemistry children and synthetic children", causing Elton - who has two sons via surrogate - to lash out on Instagram and call for a boycott of the fashion house. Stars such as Victoria Beckham and Cher tweeted messages of support to him.
Now the fashion designers have given an interview to CNN in which they attempted to explain their position.
"Every people [has] freedom for choosing what they want. This for me is democracy. I respect you because you choose what you want. I respect me because I choose what I want... This [is] just my point of private view," Dolce told the news outlet.
"I believe in the traditional family. It is impossible to change my culture for something different. It's me... I respect all the world, all the culture."
Although it was Gabbana who spoke out on social media - calling John a "fascist" for asking people not to buy the label's clothes - he doesn't share all Dolce's beliefs.
He suggested his fellow designer, and former romantic partner, had chosen "the wrong words" when he was talking.
"I think in a different way from Domenico, I believe in in vitro for example," he said.
"We love gay couples, we love a gay adoption. We love everything. Domenico has just expressed a point of view."
Dolce added that he will not be eschewing John's music as he is a big fan of the British singer. He also hopes to put the incident behind them, explaining that there is a way forward which should mean the men can get on.
"Every people resolve everything by talk... we start to talk, the problem is resolved," he said.
The designer is surprised that expressing an opinion caused such outrage and believes people should really think about that. He respects that some individuals have babies via IVF and doesn't judge them, so believes he should be afforded the same when it comes to his beliefs.
"Boycott Dolce & Gabbana for what? They don't think like you? This is correct? This is not correct. We are in 2015. This is like medieval. It's not correct," Gabbana added.
In the original Italian magazine interview Dolce was seemingly harsh in his judgement of those who use the method to have a family.
"Wombs for rent, sperm selected from a catalogue... Who would agree to be the daughter of chemistry? Procreation must be an act of love, now not even psychiatrists are prepared to deal with the effects of these experiments," he said.
