From Tiktok users trashing their Balenciaga pieces to Kim K’s statement, the issue is getting messier as it goes
Although Balenciaga is one social media platform down, it continues to make the headlines for its unfortunate campaigns. A refresher: The luxury label got slammed on social media after releasing its campaign that features young girls holding a teddy bear designed with a sexual harness. This backlash prompted the brand to delete the images and issue an apology. In the said statement, the brand also noted that it is “taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our spring-summer 23 campaign photo shoot.”
Days after the release of its statement, Tiktok users are sharing videos of themselves trashing Balenciaga pieces as some sort of rebellion. Just type in #cancelbalenciaga and you’ll find a ton of them.
The brand’s recent collaborator, reality TV show star Kim Kardashian, also released a statement on the matter. Through a social media post, she details that she reached out to the fashion house and appreciates its move to remove the campaign. Toward the end of the message, however, the tone becomes different as she is currently “re-evaluating” her bond with the brand.
“As for my future with Balenciaga, I am currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with—and the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children,” Kim ends.
I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven’t been disgusted and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened.
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) November 27, 2022
Currently, Balenciaga has found the team “responsible” for the mess and filed a $25 million lawsuit against them. The label seeks “redress for extensive damages” from production company North Six, Inc. and set designer Nicholas Des Jardin, as per Diet Prada.
Apart from the campaign featuring kids with the plush bear bags, Balenciaga is also facing another controversy with its separate campaign for its spring 2023 line featuring “a page in the background form a Supre Court ruling ‘United States v. Williams’ 2008,” which is illegal. According to the brand’s statement, although the documents used in the campaign are fake, they “turned out to be real legal papers most likely coming from the filming of a television drama.”
With a massive lawsuit, celebrity involvement, and netizens voicing out their opinion, it looks like this will not be the last time we will see Balenciaga in the headline.
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