Accusations that the company supported child trafficking sparked a tempest that spread from the internet to Fox News and was brought on by two new Balenciaga campaigns.
Balenciaga has become a lightning rod for controversy ever since Demna took over as artistic director in 2015, frequently on purpose.
A few examples include clothing Kim Kardashian in a head-to-toe black body stocking for the Met Gala and sending models who resembled refugees down the catwalk while holding trash bags made of pricey leather.
Other examples include placing heels on Crocs and selling worn-out sneakers for $1,850.
These incidents frequently looked to be done solely to stir uprage.
Each just strengthened Demna's Balenciaga's status as a company that makes customers question what "taste" even is.
The public opprobrium has now reached a new level as a result of the launch of two new Balenciaga campaigns.
Balenciaga is owned by Kering, a French luxury corporation that also owns labels like Gucci and Saint Laurent.
Images from one campaign showed young people holding teddy bear-shaped handbags while dressed in bondage attire.
Another ad included images of legal documents pertaining to child pornography.
Together, they started a blaze of controversy that spread from the web to Fox News and was stoked by claims that Balenciaga supported child exploitation.
The debate has evolved into one of the most overt minglings of conspiracy theories, internet culture, and politics to date.
After several Instagram apologies failed to calm the fury and nearly two weeks had passed, on Nov. 28, the company released a statement acknowledging "a series of terrible errors for which Balenciaga bears responsibility."
The fashion business declared that "internal and external investigations" were ongoing, that "new controls" had been put in place, and that it was in contact with "organizations who specialize in child protection and aspire to end child abuse and exploitation."
The statement read, "We want to learn from our mistakes and find ways we can contribute."
The two leaders of Balenciaga, Demna and CEO Cedric Charbit, both released messages of regret five days later, on December 2.
In his statement, Mr. Charbit listed a number of initiatives he and the business had undertaken, such as restructuring the image department and holding a "listening tour" with child advocacy organizations.
The designer "accepted responsibility" for the "inappropriate" photographs, according to Demna's statement.
"As much as I occasionally want to elicit a response from the viewer through my work, I would never intend to do that with such a terrible topic as child abuse, which I strongly oppose. Period.”
What Happened?
When Balenciaga released a campaign titled Balenciaga Gift Shop on November 16, the backlash started.
Gabriele Galimberti, an Italian documentary photographer whose work focuses on the narrative our possessions convey about ourselves, took the snapshot in October.
Although Mr. Galimberti had previously produced a book with pictures of kids playing with their toys, he had never before taken pictures for a fashion campaign.
Six kids were depicted in his images clutching demolished teddy bear handbags, which were initially spotted at the company's Paris spring 2023 catwalk show.
The fluffy bears were decked up with wine glasses and other presents, and they had fishnet tops, leather harnesses, and dark eyes.
Mr. Galimberti claimed that Balenciaga had chosen all of the props, kids, and shooting locations, and that multiple staff people were present for the two days of photography.
Soon after the Gift Shop campaign's photographs were put online, there was a surge of indignation against the juxtaposition of youngsters with what appeared to be bondage relics.
Balenciaga unveiled its 2023 Garde-Robe advertising campaign on November 21, five days later, in a different campaign.
Social media users focused on campaign photos that appeared to exploit court documents from a ruling on child pornography legislation as a prop.
What? There were two distinct advertising campaigns?
Yes. The Garde-Robe advertisement, which featured models Nicole Kidman, Isabelle Huppert, and Bella Hadid, was photographed in an office setting in July, several months before the Gift Shop campaign.
A display at the New York Stock Exchange in May 2022 debuted the campaign's looks. One of its pictures showed a $3,000 Balenciaga x Adidas Hourglass handbag on a desk next to printed copies of the Supreme Court's U.S. v. Williams ruling from 2008.
The issue in the case was whether the First Amendment's freedom of speech rights were restricted by statutes that forbade "pandering," or promoting, child pornography.
The books "The Cremaster Cycle" by Matthew Barney, which debuted in conjunction with the artist's Guggenheim Museum exhibition, and "As Sweet as It Gets" by Belgian painter Michal Borremans, whose work has been exhibited at the David Zwirner gallery, were also used as props in the Garde-Robe campaign.
Mr. Borremans' paintings, according to the exhibition, feature "toddlers engaging in fun but enigmatic behaviors with menacing overtones and insinuations of violence."
Images from both ads have been used in some criticisms to imply they are the same thing.
The brand "Balenciaga" just completed a "interesting" photo shoot for their new products, which contained a very purposefully badly hidden court document about "virtual child porn," according to a Twitter user who posted images from the two shoots.
Allegations that Balenciaga was endorsing a "child pornography campaign" and glorifying violence against children followed that tweet, among other tweets.
There are many trolls on the internet. Why did this debate gain traction?
The New York Post and the Fox News program "Tucker Carlson Tonight" were among the right-leaning media outlets to cover the topic as internet criticism of the ads gained traction.
QAnon, the online conspiracy theory claiming "a gang of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to dominate our politics and media," has benefited from the show's support in becoming more well-known and accepted.
On November 22, Mr. Carlson told viewers, "Here you have a major multinational retail company advertising kiddie porn and sex with minors and not marketing it softly but right out in the open."
Balenciaga's response was:
On November 24, the company issued an apology for the Gift Shop campaign and made a commitment to take the adverts down from its social media pages in reaction to the outcry.
We deeply regret any offence our Christmas campaign may have caused. In this advertisement, children should not have been shown holding our plush bear bags.
The campaign has been instantly taken down from all channels, according to a statement published on Balenciaga's Instagram on November 24.
A second apology for the Garde-Robe promotion was made to the company's Instagram Stories a few hours later.
The message read, "We regret for showcasing upsetting materials in our campaign.
We are initiating legal action against the parties responsible for setting up the scene and including prohibited goods for our Spring 23 campaign photo shoot since we take this issue very seriously.
We vehemently reject all forms of child abuse. We advocate for the protection and welfare of children.
Initiating a $25 million lawsuit against the production company North Six and Nicholas Des Jardins, who created the set for the Garde-Robe campaign, Balenciaga filed documents in New York court on November 25. (North Six's website lists Dior and Zara among its other clients.)
North Six has previously worked on Balenciaga campaigns.
The disco horse from Beyoncé's "Renaissance" album cover is among Mr. Des Jardins' most recent creations.)
The production firm and set designer were accused of engaging in "inexplicable conduct and omissions" that were "malevolent or, at the at least, excessively careless," according to the summons with notice.
The company effectively argued that the documents were inserted into the campaign pictures without their consent and that this misinformation caused people to incorrectly associate Balenciaga with child pornography.
North Six, which oversees production-related elements including catering, permits, and personnel, declined to comment when approached by The New York Times.
A week following Balenciaga's original court filing, on December 2, the firm declared it was dropping its lawsuit.
So, from where did the Supreme Court's ruling come? Who authorized using it as a prop?
According to a statement sent via email by a lawyer for Mr. Des Jardins, the set designer, the documents came from "many crates" that were rented from a prop company.
But according to Balenciaga's statement on November 28, all were intended to be "fabricated office documents" that "came out to be real legal papers most likely coming from the filming of a television drama."
The inclusion of the Supreme Court page was deemed "unapproved" and "the product of willful negligence" by Balenciaga, which had the photos in its possession for months prior to their public publication.
The attorney for Mr. Des Jardins stated in her statement that "there was unquestionably no evil plot afoot."
Des Jardins, a set designer, "was not responsible for image selection from the session," the author claimed, adding that Balenciaga representatives were on the set during the shot "overseeing it and managing papers and other items." (She also emphasized that her client was not a part of the other Gift Shop marketing.)
In the end, choosing the images would have been up to the brand, which said in a statement on November 28 that it "could have done things differently" and accepted "full blame for our lack of monitoring and control."
Is the photographer for the Gift Shop campaign also being sued by Balenciaga?
No. The Garde-Robe advertising has nothing to do with Mr. Galimberti.
Additionally, he did not decide to include young children holding bear bags in the Gift Shop promotion.
He claimed that Balenciaga had informed him that "punk" was the theme of the photoshoot.
In a statement released on November 28, Balenciaga said, "Our plush bear bags and the Gift collection shouldn't have been featured with kids.
Balenciaga made a mistake with this decision, and we made mistakes in evaluating and validating the photographs.
The only person responsible for this is Balenciaga.
Meaning: Don't hold the photographer responsible. But the fury of the outburst obscured the subtleties.
Mr. Galimberti claimed that since the public distribution of the Gift Shop campaign photographs, he has received a deluge of hate mail and death threats, had jobs canceled, and had personal information, such as his phone number, published online.
No one wants to be linked with me right now because the word pedophilia is attached to my name everywhere, according to Mr. Galimberti. "I've spent 25 years working on my own stuff, and suddenly this campaign ruined everything. I'm not getting good sleep. My family is very concerned."
