Balenciaga's creative director Demna addresses controversial ads for the first time, apologises

Balenciaga, which is considered one of the top luxury brands since decades, became controversy's favourite child after a series of its ad campaigns gained attention for all the wrong reasons. And, after staying silent for quite a while, its creative director Denma Gvasalia has decided to speak about the problematic ads that have resulted in a massive downfall of Balenciaga's image in the fashion world.

Speaking to Vogue, Demna said, "I realise that my work has been seen as provocative, but this specific situation would never be part of my, you know, provocative nature."

"This is where my error comes in. That was my big mistake. I didn't realise how inappropriate it would be to put these objects [in the image] and still have the kid in the middle. It unfortunately was the wrong idea and a bad decision from me. We should not have featured kids in images that included objects that were not related and inappropriate to them," Demna continued. "No one, myself included, raised a question of it being inappropriate. There were control processes in place, people involved—internal and external—but we just did not spot what was problematic. This was an error of judgment. I regret this a lot."

Talking about the reaction the ads received, Demna said, "It was a reaction I would never, ever want to cause. I mean, I’ve been called terrible things, which I’m not, and Balenciaga is not. That was difficult on top of the horror of being associated with that problem [of child abuse]. These are the mistakes we have made, and we have to be responsible for them. I would never want to mess around with a subject like that."

What was the controversy?

In November last year, Balenciaga released two advertising campaigns which stirred major controversy.One ad campaign was to promote its holiday offering called Gift Shop. The other campaign was for the brand's Spring 2023 collection.

Within days of the first campaign's publication, social media got flooded with angry reactions. Netizenscondemned the house for showing children holding bags, which looked liketeddy bears wearing harnesses. Some even slammed the band for picturing kids near an array of grown-up items, such as a Balenciaga-branded wine glass. Many felt the bags referenced BDSM, and that their presence on the shoot was an abhorrent sexualisation of children.

A week later, the Spring 2023 campaign got published online and it instantly went viral. Many spotted three disturbing props in the campaign that added to the furore. Netizens spotteda printout from the Supreme Court ruling in the case of United States v. Williams, which confirmed that First Amendment rights didn't include the promotion of child pornography. The copy of the judgement washalf visible from beneath a Balenciaga handbag.

There was also a book by Belgian artist Michaël Borremans, whose controversial workaround sinister-seeming images of toddlers playing in disturbing ways has often garnered negative attention. A fake framed college certificate was also seen hanging on the wall which borea name that, when googled, brought up the identities of many real people, including that of a convicted child abuser.

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