(CNSNews.com) – Fashion icons and one-time romantic partners Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are sending shockwaves through the gay community following an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama where they expressed support for children born in a “traditional” family and opposition to gay couples using surrogates or in vitro fertilization to have children.

The interview, published in Italian and translated for a blog on the Institute on Religion and Public Life’s website, called such children “synthetic” and asserted that nature “should not be changed.”

“The family is not a fad,” Gabbana said in the article. “In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

Procreation “must be an act of love,” he said.

“Children born through artificial insemination or egg donors are ‘children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteruses for rent, semen chosen from a catalog,’” Dolce said.

“The only family is the traditional one,” Dolce said. “No chemical offsprings and rented uterus: life has a natural flow; there are things that should not be changed.”

This is not the first time that the men have spoken out against homosexuals having children. In 2006, Gabbana told the Daily Mail: “I am opposed to the idea of a child growing up with two gay parents.”

Gay activists have been quick to react, with many calling for a boycott of the Dolce & Gabbana fashion line, including Elton John.

John, who has two children by a surrogate with husband David Furnish, posted a photo of the designers and wrote on Instagram: "How dare you refer to my beautiful children as 'synthetic'. And shame on you for wagging your judgmental little fingers at IVF - a miracle that has allowed legions of loving people, both straight and gay, to fulfill their dream of having children."

John signed off with: "#BoycottDolceGabbana"