Madonna, the high priestess of pop-culture controversy, has weighed in on the Dolce & Gabbana contention, which began when the brand’s eponymous designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana spoke out against gay adoption to an Italian magazine.

“The only family is the traditional one,” the Italian designers are quoted as saying to Panorama. “No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: Life has a natural flow, there are things that should not be changed.” The two are also quoted as calling children born to gay couples via I.V.F. “synthetic.”

Madonna, who starred in advertising campaigns for the luxury fashion house in 2009 and 2010, Instagrammed a black-and-white photo of herself and a baby that was used during Dolce & Gabbana’s 2010/2011 winter-collection campaign. The pop singer, who has two adopted children of her own, added the following caption to the photo:

All babies contain a soul however they come to this earth and their families. There is nothing synthetic about a soul!! So how can we dismiss IVF and surrogacy? Every soul comes to us to teach us a lesson. God has his hand in everything even technology! We are arrogant to think Man does anything on his own. As above so below! Think before you speak.,,,,,,,,,,,??#livingforlove.”

Five days ago, Elton John, whose two children were born by surrogates, initiated a boycott of the fashion house on Instagram. (Apparently Instagram is the popular forum for feuds this week.) “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic,’” John wrote. “And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF. . .Your archaic thinking is out of step with the times, just like your fashions. I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana.”

In the days since John’s declaration, Victoria Beckham, Courtney Love, Ryan Murphy, Ricky Martin, and more have rallied behind John on Twitter. And although one photographer caught John carrying a Dolce & Gabbana shopping bag in the days after his declaration, a spokesperson for the performer has clarified to the Daily Mail, “[H]e was carrying the bag but he hadn’t been shopping. And it should not detract from their original message or the boycott.”

Both Dolce and Gabbana have since responded in multiple interviews, reacting to the boycott and attempting to clarify their comments.

“I did not expect [the boycott to come] from a person who I believed—I underline, I believed—to be intelligent like Elton John,” Gabbana told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “He is ignorant, in the sense he ignores that there are different opinions to his which are equally worthy of respect.”

Gabbana suggested that it was John who was small-minded, not him, in a follow-up interview with CNN.

“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 told CNN.

Gabbana also explained that his perspective was based on his traditional Sicilian upbringing.

“I believe in the traditional family,” he continued. “It is impossible to change my culture for something different. It’s me . . . I respect all the world, all the culture.” Gabbana added: “We love gay couples. We are gay. We love gay couples. We love gay adoption. We love everything. It’s just an express of my private point of view.”

The two were more diplomatic in a statement that was sent to ABC News.

“I am very well aware of the fact that there are other types of families and they are as legitimate as the one I’ve known,” Dolce said.

“It was never our intention to judge other people’s choices,” Gabbana added. “We do believe in freedom and love.”

These sentiments may not be enough to make up for their polarizing first comments though. Women’s Wear Daily reports that “50 gay and human rights protestors gathered outside the Dolce & Gabbana flagship store on London’s Bond Street Thursday, demanding a boycott of the Italian brand.”

[via Vanity Fair]