Luxurious fashion brand Balenciaga has received huge criticism for their new photo campaign which has left many fans disgusted.
The newest spring collection from Balenciaga has young models carrying their brand-new teddy bear bags. These teddy bears are seen wearing leather harnesses and fishnet tops. Some have claimed that these teddies are BDSM-inspired.
The child models were also photographed with alcohol surrounding them.
These images are not from the Balenciaga website. Balenciaga has removed these images now to prevent further circulation. These images have been circulated online by critics.
Gabriel Galimberti was the photographer of Balenciaga’s latest photoshoot, originally posted on their official website. These pictures have now been removed from Balenciaga’s website.
Fans were even more outraged to see a separate collaboration with high-street fashion brand Adidas which featured a Balenciaga bag with Adidas stripes over it. Underneath the bag is what shocked fans as they were presented with unsettling documents that appear to be from the 2008 Supreme court case United States versus Williams which supported part of a child pornography law.
Since Balenciaga has issued an apology on their Instagram account in which they said the following:
“We would like to address the controversies surrounding our recent ad campaigns. We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intent to include it in our narrative. The two separate ad campaigns in question reflect a series of grievous errors for which Balenciaga takes responsibility.
The statement then continued to say “our plush bears and gift collection should not have been featured with children. This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images. The responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone.”
Balenciaga has also said apologised for the disturbing documents used to promote their brand. They said we apologise for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign, we take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our spring 23 campaign.
Despite their apology, people, influencers and celebrities were not buying it and have taken to Twitter to express their repulsion towards the scandal.
Youtuber and Podcast star, Blaire White on Twitter said,
Author Ashely St. Clair also came to say,
Whereas, Usern0me said,
However, on TikTok, it looks like users have dealt with their disgust by burning all products they own by Balenciaga.
Viva La Pink Posh on Tik Tok is seen burning her pink Balenciagas. She tagged the video by saying. ” Used to love this brand but I do not and will not support this, do your research!!!!”.
Another Tik Tok user named @realforgiatoblow was seen burning his red Balenciaga and tagged the video saying ” stay woke, stay broke”.
Tristan Tate, brother of Andrew Tate also came to TikTok to tell everyone to burn their Balenciagas whilst praising Kanye West for cutting ties with the brand and telling viewers that there is more to the story than meets the eye.
There have also been some people who hold different views, Nadine Samii said, ” Il stop buying Balenciaga if you stop buying Shein”.
The Balenciaga controversy has created a lot of debate and uproar, and several views have been expressed. The question is: Will Balenciaga ever be able to make a comeback and recover from this?
Updates:
- Kim Kardashian has spoken out saying she feels disgusted and outraged by the recent events.
- Gabriel Galimberti issued a statement where he stressed that attention focused on him is diverting away from the real problems and criminals.
- Balenciaga will not sue the Spanish photographer
- The brand will sue the production team after Kim Kardashians’ statement on the child ad.
- Fans are calling on Nicole Kidman to break the silence on the Balenciaga controversy.
- Balenciaga store in Bond street was Vandalised after their latest campaign.
Words: Tania | Subbing: Keana Isaac-Taylor
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