Balenciaga’s Creepy Couture

On Oct. 2, Balenciaga held its Spring 2023 collection during Paris Fashion Week. The luxury brand received a lot of attention from Tik Tokers mocking models’ walks to people fawning over Bella Hadid’s appearance. It turns out the spotlight is still on Balenciaga’s Spring 2023 collection; however the narrative has shifted from clothes to kids.

On the Balenciaga website, the company was promoting its spring collection with advertisements showing children posed with BDSM-dressed teddy bears. Pictures shot by ​​Gabriele Galimberti showed a child surrounded by wine glasses while holding a purple teddy bear that was dressed in a leather harness and silver and black bow. Another one of Galimberti’s pictures has another child with a white teddy bear dressed in a fishnet top, leather bracelets and anklets, and a choker with a prominent lock attached. The ads have since been deleted. 

As if Balenciaga could not get any more creepy, it did. A picture from the Balenciaga / Adidas campaign had a Balenciaga handbag laying over a desk covered in paperwork. While it seems like a normal artistic picture, when looked at closer, the wording on one of the papers can be seen.  The paper had language from the Supreme Court Case, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, which was about the constitutionality of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA) and whether its clauses stating that any pornography that appears to be or conveys the impression that children are engaging in sexual activity is illegal. The Supreme Court ruled against the 1996 CPPA. 

While Balenciaga having documents with language from this case in their photoshoot could just be seen as weird, when paired with the pictures of children with BDSM teddy bears, it is all too inappropriate and creepy to defend. 

Photographer, Gabriele Galimberti, stated on Instagram that he had no connection to the picture with the Supreme Court documents. Galimberti also stated that in regard to the pictures with children, he was only creating the scene and taking pictures based on his signature style and that the direction of the campaign was on Balenciaga, not him. 

On Nov. 22, Balenciaga issued apologies on its Instagram Story regarding the inappropriately dressed teddy bears and the court documents. After publishing the apologies, Balenciaga deleted all posts from its Instagram feed.