This Is the Controversy Behind Balenciaga’s Apology

"Balenciaga Gift Shop" is the name of the campaign of the French fashion house that has generated controversy in the last week. This was launched for his home and interior design line and Gabriel Galimberti was in charge of the photos that make it up. Galimberti is famous for a series of photographs of people surrounded by their most precious objects. It is precisely on this series that the design of the photos of "Balenciaga Gift Shop" was based, the same aesthetic was used, but in them children appear surrounded by objects from the brand's line.

Despite how innocent the campaign may sound at first glance, the images generated controversy due to their composition and the readings that have been made of them on the internet. The reason? In several of the photos some children are shown carrying an already famous bag from a previous collection, Teddy, which is a teddy bear dressed in sexually harnessed harnesses .

At the time Balenciaga's apology came out, Demna, the fashion house's current creative director, assured that the Teddy bag had not been allowed in the photos of the collection, but did not explain why. Despite not being allowed, it ended up appearing, even when this kind of campaign, of one of the most important luxury brands in the world, have many filters.

Although the above had already set off the alarms, what ended up spilling the cup was a particular product photo of the Hourglass bag, in collaboration with Adidas, which is part of a collection that is inspired by the profession of lawyer. In this image, the bag sits on top of a stack of sheets, all blank, but one with text on it.

Several users on Twitter decided to find out what this sheet said and discovered that this is page 11 of the Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002), a ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the freedom to record scenes with a pedophilic cut but with actors of legal age is discussed.

This, added to the above, suggested that this Balenciaga campaign was made with a marketing intention that praises and even incites pedophilia, as well as hypersexualizing the children that appear in the images.

Apologies that Are Not Enough 

After the controversy broke out, just 20 hours after the launch, the brand downloaded all the images of the campaign from its social networks and make a press release in which it apologized for what happened. Balenciaga explained that the Teddy bags should not be in this campaign and assured that all the images alluding to the campaign and the photos of Galimberti would be eliminated.

Galimberti also make a statement assuring that he had no control over the models or the objects that would be used in the photographs and that he would take legal action against the people who participated in the production for using unapproved objects. Likewise, he clarified that he had no participation in the photos of the collection in collaboration with Adidas.

At this time, only part of the press release can be found on Balenciaga's social networks.  Added to the controversy, Kim Kardashian made a statement on Sunday night. Kardashian has a million-dollar contractual contract with the brand, and in the statement she expressed her concern about what happened and assured that she is seriously thinking of cutting relations with the fashion house after receiving criticism from her fans for not speaking out earlier about what happened. So far, Balenciaga has not commented on Kardashian's statements.