…but as the campaign begins to fade from the media, I am sure Balenciaga will be back on the shoulders of celebrities come spring.
“Balenciaga: What Happened?” by Mary Quinn McNaughton
Last winter, if you looked up the words “Balenciaga scandal,” you would be bombarded with hundreds of articles about the brand’s controversy concerning their “Balenciaga Gift Shop” ad campaign.
The photo series promoting a line of teddy bear bags features young children holding the bags, which are dressed in BDSM gear. Other photos released during the campaign include pictures of child pornography legislation and court cases.
The backlash was immediate and chaotic. Many public figures and models purposely ruined their Balenciaga or posted videos protesting the brand. Prominent celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Candace Owens, Brittany Aldean, and Julia Fox, found themselves in the hot seat after the scandal.
Kim Kardashian was blasted online for not addressing the controversy sufficiently but was not directly involved in the ad campaign’s release and later denounced it online.
The pictures, which also serve as an excellent lesson on how the Internet lasts forever, can be found today, but nothing about the scandal pops up when you research the brand.
I joke around with my family and friends about getting “canceled” because that’s just what cancel culture is: a joke.
What appeared to be the Armageddon of the fashion house and maybe the “canceling” of high fashion was solved with radio silence for a few months while the brand absorbed the publicity it received.
In an article I wrote last year, I discussed that while the news was “Balenciaga this and Balenciaga that,” the brand was receiving more attention than ever, suggesting that the entire campaign was not a publicity strategy gone wrong, rather a publicity strategy gone right.
All publicity is good publicity.
Phineas T. Barnum
While celebrities thought they were spiting the brand by ruining their clothes, they were bringing more attention to it and proving how recognizable Balenciaga is in the fashion world.
A big part of the reason I believe the scandal itself to be a marketing strategy is because of Balenciaga’s “vibe” as a brand.
Balenciaga, from their couture releases to their runway shows, is a brand that is obsessed with pushing the boundaries of fashion and social acceptance and is all about the most grotesque aspects of high fashion.
I find it hard to believe that a high fashion brand that has featured BDSM-esque clothing on their runways, hosted a couture show in a literal mudpit, and dressed Julia Fox in absolutely obscene outfits would not cancel themselves for attention. Balenciaga was in the news for weeks…whether it was bad publicity or not, that’s a long time for a fashion house.
The overarching lesson in all this is that cancel culture, especially as it pertains to pop culture, is not real.
If you look up Balenciaga right now, you will find their forty-minute runway show for their ready-to-wear spring collection, their Vogue profile, an interview with Balenciaga designer Demna, and even an article about Kim Kardashian, a figure-head in the scandal, modeling unreleased Balenciaga before walking in their show.
High fashion organizations, like Balenciaga, and even celebrities will never be de-platformed, no matter what they do or how controversial they get. In a society so focused on appearance and materialism, I can promise that Balenciaga, or any other fashion brand with a scandal, will never be canceled.
In my article last year, I write that Balenciaga would be all over celebrities and the runway as soon as the scandal blew over, so all that’s left to say is…
I told you so.