A Complete Breakdown of the Recent Balenciaga Ad Scandal

ICYMI, Balenciaga’s back-to-back, end-of-year ads—one of which featured children donning BDSM-inspired accessories, and the other of which included the 2008 Supreme Court decision United States v. Williams (a ruling that upheld the judicial integrity of a prior child pornography conviction) as a prop—are the subject of tons of controversy. Almost immediately, fans called out the brand, accusing it of sexualizing children both overtly and subversively. Since then, Balenciaga has issued multiple statements and, at one point, decided to sue both the production company and set designer involved in one of the campaigns.

Here’s everything you need to know about the controversy, including how it all started, what the brand itself has said, and the details surrounding the $25 million lawsuit, which was rescinded roughly a week after initially being filed.

November 16, 2022: Balenciaga releases the first ad, titled the “Gift Collection”

The scandal began on November 16, when the brand published a campaign dubbed the “Gift Collection” in support of its spring/summer 2023 series, which debuted at Paris Fashion Week this past fall.

Shot last month by award-winning photographer Gabriele Galimberti, the images taken featured six children showcasing furry, teddy bear handbags. The plush bears wore everything from leather, studded harnesses to collars with locks and fishnet tops (wineglasses were even placed around them as added props). Almost immediately, social media users turned their attention toward the brand and denounced the sexualized images.

November 21, 2022: A second campaign drops

A mere five days later, the brand released a second slate of images for its 2023 Garde-Robe advertising campaign (which also happened to include entertainment and fashion veterans like Nicole Kidman and Bella Hadid). Shot months prior in July 2022 and taken in an office setting, one specific shot touted an Hourglass bag from the fashion house’s collaboration with Adidas and included physical document props that referenced the Supreme Court case United States v. Williams, a ruling that sustained the PROTECT Act, which “strengthens law enforcement’s ability to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and punish violent crimes committed against children,” per the Department of Justice.

Another object in a separate image from the campaign also immediately drew attention: the book As Sweet as It Gets by Belgian painter and filmmaker Michaël Borremans, whose work has been described by the David Zwirner gallery as “toddlers engaged in playful but mysterious acts with sinister overtones and insinuations of violence,” according to the New York Post.

November 23, 2022: Photographer Gabriele Galimberti issues a public statement on Instagram

Galimmberti, the photographer who’d captured the “Gift Collection” campaign shots, took to Instagram to issue a statement in the wake of the scandal “following the hundreds of hate mails and messages” received. In the post, he began by asserting, “I am not in a position to comment Balenciaga’s choices, but I must stress that I was not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither chose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same. As a photographer, I was only and solely requested to lit the given scene, and take the shots according to my signature style. As usual for a commercial shooting, the direction of the campaign and the choice of the objects displayed are not in the hands of the photographer.”

The photographer concluded his statement by underscoring that accusations like the ones made against him “distract from the real problem” and said he has no ties to the second Balenciaga Garde-Robe campaign.

November 24, 2022: Balenciaga addresses the controversy for the first time

Just over a week after its “Gift Collection” campaign dropped, the brand released a public statement and promised to remove the images from its social media channels. “We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms,” read the announcement, which was issued via an Instagram Story.

Then, a few hours later, another statement was published in the same manner—this time, in reference to its second Garde-Robe campaign. It read: “We apologize 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 photo shoot. We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children’s safety and well-being.”

November 25, 2022: A $25 million lawsuit is filed against North Six and Nicholas Des Jardins

Balenciaga chose to initiate a $25 million lawsuit (!!) against production company North Six and Nicholas Des Jardins (aka the set designer for the Garde-Robe campaign) on November 25 (the lawsuit was subsequently withdrawn on December 25, but more on that later). Per the New York Times, the court documents alleged that both North Six and Nicholas “engaged in ‘inexplicable acts and omissions’ that were ‘malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless.’”

November 27, 2022: Kim Kardashian breaks her silence

Given her longstanding relationship with Balenciaga and her recent stints as a model for the brand, Kim Kardashian shared her thoughts about the “Gift Collection” campaign on social media.

“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,” she began in a lengthy Twitter thread.

“As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images. The safety of children must be held with the highest regard, and any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society—period. I appreciate Balenciaga's removal of the campaigns and apology. In speaking with them, I believe they understand the seriousness of the issue and will take the necessary measures for this to never happen again,” the tweet continued.

Kim ended the statement by saying she’s “currently re-evaluating” the future of her relationship with the brand, based “off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with.”

November 28, 2022: An additional statement from Balenciaga amid public scrutiny that the brand is trying to deflect blame

An in-feed post summing up Balenciaga’s positioning on both campaigns and a list of actions it will be taking moving forward was uploaded to its Instagram, which was completely wiped clean, save for the announcement.

In the statement, Balenciaga maintained that “all the items included in [the Garde-Robe campaign] were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents. They turned out to be real legal papers most likely coming from the filming of a television drama.” It added that, “The inclusion of these unapproved documents was the result of reckless negligence for which Balenciaga has filed a complaint.”

Also on November 28, 2022: Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia’s Global Voices Award is revoked

Influential industry resource Business of Fashion announced via Twitter that Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s current creative director, would have his Global Voices Award rescinded in the wake of the luxury brand’s continued ad scandal.

December 2, 2022

Demna finally broke his silence on the controversy by apologizing primarily for his part in the oversight of the “Gift Collection” campaign via Instagram. “I want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility,” the designer began the post. “It was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that had nothing to do with them,” he continued, adding that, though he at times likes “to provoke a thought” in his campaigns, he “would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse.”

“I need to learn from this, listen and engage with child protection organizations to know how I can contribute and help on this terrible subject,” he added before concluding by saying, “I apologize to anyone offended by the visuals and Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures will be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the future but also to take accountability in protecting child welfare in every way we can.”

Balenciaga, too, uploaded another post—this one with more concrete actionable steps it will be taking moving forward, including dropping the $25 million lawsuit against North Six and Nicholas Des Jardins, setting aside a “significant fund for grants to organizations” aimed at protecting children, and working to have a more symbiotic creative process wherein the brand will ensure that internal and external parties are specifically designated to “evaluate our content.”

Has Balenciaga ever been involved in other controversies?

The short answer? Absolutely. Since Demna began helming Balenciaga in 2015, it has sparked its fair share of controversial moments, including more harmless fashion subversions, like remaking IKEA’s 99-cent shopping bag and selling it for $2,145 and producing frayed and destroyed sneakers for $1,850.

More recently, the brand was called out for appropriation over its $1,190 Trompe-L’Oeil pants, which were lined with visible boxers on the inside. “Balenciaga men’s Trompe-L’Oeil sweatpants in red triggers immediate concern given the grotesque similarity to the iconic African American hip hop aesthetic worn by Black Americans for decades that has resulted in the imprisonment and death of Black men,” Marquita Gammage, an associate professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Northridge, expressed to CNN via email.

“The trousers have commercial cultural appropriation written all over them; branded with the name Balenciaga...Sagging attire has been consequential for African Americans; yet companies like Balenciaga seek to capitalize off of Blacks and Black cultural styles while failing to challenge systematic racism that criminalizes Blacks and Black clothing trends,” Gammage added.

The future of the brand remains to be seen, but some wonder if this controversy in particular might just be Balenciaga’s last curtain call.

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