[imagesource: Jam Press / Balenciaga]

Balenciaga has jumped from one pool of hot water to another.

The luxury brand cut ties with the problematic Kanye West after he made those anti-Semitic remarks, which is good, but has since been slammed for another rather interesting campaign choice.

The advert for Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection, which debuted this fall at Paris Fashion Week, featured kids holding bears that looked ready for a BDSM party.

As soon as it came out, June Nicole Lapine, or @shoe0nhead on Twitter, basically implied that the fashion label is conspiring to exploit children, per High Snobiety:

the brand “Balenciaga” just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn’

normal stuff pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s

— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022

But the harness-clad teddy bear bags are the least of the possible reasons why Balenciaga left Twitter and wiped their Instagram clean, at least according to the conspiracy theory that the likes of Lapine are building.

While some have objected to Balenciaga’s decision to place the BDSM-inspired bags in the hands of young kids, the isolated campaign isn’t exactly indicative of a wider conspiracy.

Still, Lapine builds her case by erroneously linking the images to photos from an entirely separate — again, entirely separate — campaign promoting Balenciaga’s collaboration with Adidas.

That campaign features a Three Stripes handbag on top of a pile of very official-looking documents.

Publications like The New York Post have described Lapine as an “eagle-eyed online investigator” (which she lapped up) for pointing out that the doc appeared to be about a child pornography law:

Upon zooming in, one of those documents is revealed to be a comment from United States v. Williams, a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the PROTECT Act, a federal law that criminalizes advertising, promoting, presenting, or distributing child pornography.

Although High Snobiety reckons this is just another internet user “making mountains out of molehills in the name of clicks”.

Balenciaga more likely made an accidental, and admittedly strange, set choice rather than one that hints at something unlawful, as Lapine suggests:

THEY DELETED ALL OF THEIR INSTAGRAM POSTS LMAO pic.twitter.com/ZWfgROhngr

— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022

Anyway, Balenciaga turned off comments on its Instagram account and posted a Story apologising for the holiday gifting campaign drama and the  court documents:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by HIGHSNOBIETY (@highsnobiety)

To me, kids holding teddies in bondage outfits (even though they are more likely dressed as 80s punks) sitting before a table that lightly resembles a hardcore party along with a court document shunning the exploitation of kids could be construed as art or commentary.

Then again, these sorts of controversies and mistruths are exactly the sort of thing that quickly grow legs on social media.

[sources:nypost&highsnobiety]