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It has been several weeks of silence before Demna, Balenciaga’s controversial creative director, finally spoke up about the BDSM ad scandal in which he used young children with bondage accoutrements and allegations of normalizing sexual fetishization and abuse of children.
Balenciaga came under heavy criticism after they ran a campaign in which young children modeled teddy bears wearing bondage gear. Another ad showed what looked like legal documents from a Supreme Court case that ruled on federal laws regarding child pornography.
“I want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility. It was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that had nothing to do with them,” the 41-year-old wrote.
Wrong artistic choice? Choosing the wrong color combination or setting or style can be the wrong artistic choice but this doesn't seem to fall into that category--it's using children coupled with a sexualized message to sell a product, and it's disgusting.
“As much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period,” said Demna, who is personal friends with Kim Kardashian and her anti-Semite ex-husband, Ye. “I need to learn from this, listen and engage with child protection organizations to know how I can contribute and help on this terrible subject.”
“I apologize to anyone offended by the visuals and Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures will be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the future but also to take accountability in protecting child welfare in every way we can,” he concluded.
This was not a mistake, it was intentional. If there was no blowback, Demne would have thought it was brilliant--but he caught flak and he had to walk back his decision. He obviously thought that using children holding sexual bondage bags would be thought of as edgy and cool. It was an error in his judgment because he did not see anything wrong with it at the time, and this should tell us something about his character and perhaps the character of those who he attempts to appeal to.
Last week, the Kering-owned French fashion house issued its own statement along with a lawsuit against the production company responsible for some of the images.
Balenciaga has since apologized and pulled the ads, even promising an internal and external investigation. They also filed a $25 million lawsuit against the producers of one of the advertisements.
Demna's apology comes after other fashion designers blamed him for not taking responsibility for the sexualizing of young children. One seasoned designer, Olga Liriano, who spent many years as a model booker, photo director and top magazine editor said that it was ridiculous to think Demna and the heads at Balenciaga were clueless what the campaign was going to look like once they were photographed.
The teddy-bear ad was shot by Gabriele Galimberti, who has said he was told the theme was “punk.”
“Oh please,” Liriano said of the Vetements co-founder. “Demna doesn’t put out one image that he hasn’t approved. Demna is not only the creative director, he’s driving all the imagery behind the campaigns. To blame a production company is nuts.”
“Oh please,” Liriano said of the Vetements co-founder. “Demna doesn’t put out one image that he hasn’t approved. Demna is not only the creative director, he’s driving all the imagery behind the campaigns. To blame a production company is nuts.”
The Business of Fashion rescinded its Global Voices Award that Demna was to be given at its annual gala on Thursday.
Demna's fashion sense seems as pretentious as AOC's claim of intellect. For example, he created a $1,790 purse that looked like a garbage bag and put on a fashion show with models marching in war trenches. In other words, his work is overpriced, pretentious, and is generally purchased by people who fit in the same box.
But using children in the way that he did, shows us just how much he sucks.
