Balenciaga: Demna apologizes, wrong fetish photos with children - Lifestyle

NEW YORK - In the end Demna Gvasalia apologized: "It was a wrong artistic choice", said the creative director of Balenciaga, in the storm for a series of advertising campaigns with a bondage-sadomasochistic flavor that so many critics have thrown at each other for having sexually exploited the image of children.

"It wasn't appropriate to have children in photos promoting objects that have nothing to do with them," said the Georgian designer who took over the reins of the maison in 2015, relaunching its popularity with provocations and street fashion.

    Images of the scandal, in which children were holding teddy bears in fetish harnesses such as in some bags designed by Balenciaga, have been withdrawn from circulation.

    Demna added that he will work with child protection organizations "to help with the terrible issue" of child sexual exploitation.

    Today, to complicate the situation, Kanye West had stepped in with outstretched leg: despite having been dumped by the fashion house in October for his anti-Semitic outbursts, the rapper and stylist Kim Kardashian's ex-husband had defended the designer on Twitter with whom he in the past he has been the protagonist of numerous collaborations, the last one at the Paris Fashion Week.

"I'm on Balenciaga's side and denounce any witch hunt. Child trafficking doesn't begin or end with a fashion campaign," Ye proclaimed, posting a photo of himself in battle gear accompanied by another message: "Never turn our backs on Demna and the Balenciaga family for life. Cancel the 'cancel culture'".

    The rapper's utterances, who in a third message admitted that his addiction to pornography "ruined his family", were then interrupted when, after posting a tweet with a swastika inside a star of David, the new owner of the microblogging site Elon Musk, suspended his profile.

Kanye was the only voice so far openly defending Balenciaga.

In recent days she had taken sides against ex-wife Kim Kardashian, one of Demna's muses, announcing that she would "revisit her relationship with the brand".

The influencer then passed from words to deeds, refusing to participate, according to TMZ, in a new promotional campaign and returning some Balenciaga garments to the sender that he was supposed to wear at upcoming events.

    Meanwhile, on TikTok some customers have posted videos in which they destroy Balenciaga clothes, bags and shoes in protest.

Instead, Nicole Kidman remained silent.

Not even a week ago the 'Eyes Wide Shut' actress posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a black leather trench coat from the Balenciaga spring 2023 collection and the pressing of the fans who filled her social profile with negative comments. he still induced to distance himself.

Silence also from Salma Hayek and her husband François-Henri Pinault: he is the CEO of Kering, the 'parent company' which owns the fashion house.