Balenciaga apologises for bondage bear advert involving child

What are they getting wrong?

Thank you! so desperate to sniff out an apologist for the sexualisation of kids, some posters will read what they want into anything 🤣
I wanted and expected to see outrage from someone well known.

I’ve already said previously that it’s outrageous. I’m not defending Balenciaga I’m expressing surprise that these random people are being posted with their views as if anyone will be interested in them. I’m disappointed someone more famous isn’t outraged. Talk about twisting words! 🤣

She’s got a huge following? I’ve never heard of her and you’ve missed my point which was why isn’t someone more mainstream picking it up! Or is she really mainstream interjecting pro life propaganda into all her broadcasts!?

Marvellous. 🙄

Thanks for the explanation though Clymene.

I’ve seen the fact that the Telegraph and the Times has reported it, but I am genuinely shocked that people with a high profile platform, including gender critical Twitter and newspaper columnists aren’t calling it out or writing about it. Other than being warned of it from editors re advertising revenue from Kering (the parent company of Balenciaga and many others). But if that’s the case, that’s a horrendous and hypocritical moral choice for them. Photographer Misan Harriman has called it out unequivocally.

Not to mention that after the photo shoot, the photos would have been poured over, air brushed, particular ones selected, and then someone high up in the company would have had to authorise them for publication. At that point, the point of publication, the photographer is well out of it. The decision to put this shit out in public is director level perversion.

Was that a deliberate expression?

I thought it was a group of very unfit or people without enough energy having to walk fast so they didn't sink in the mud?

After two minutes I gave up looking at such angry, miserable, depressed looking people. Though I'd be all those things if I had to wear those clothes.

Looks like mouth-breathing is in for 2023, anyway.

First model walking in this show has mastectomy scars.

www.balenciaga.com/en-gb/summer-23

Fugly clothes. The whole thing is intensly sordid and depressing. Why would anyone want to buy this crap?

100%

It's mud spatter. They made their models walk around a mud trench for the show.

I'm afraid anyone who still generously believes this was an unintentional accident, as opposed to intentionally planned, carefully, designed and strategised?

Is still at the 'be kind' stage of naivety and unconscious enablement.

I am not tolerating a society that celebrates depravity. That can fuck right off. If this is what comes of loosening boundaries and increasing 'tolerance' (except as a homosexual female in her 50s I have never in my lifetime experienced such homophobia, intolerance, hate and rage with desire to harm and suppress as I have experienced in the past few years from the be kind/inclusion/love or we'll kerb stomp and beat you to death mob) then stuff it.

Yes. Every single detail would've been curated by the company. He might well not have cared, but it wouldn't have been his decision.

I thought the bondage bears were props created for the shoot, but it seems they're actually retailed by the company, is this correct?

They are actually handbags, yes really.

This picture from their runway show is also disturbing:

i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/11/23/23/64767967-11463573-The_bondage_clad_teddybears_are_actually_handbags_that_appeared_-a-1_1669247372798.jpg

What is going on with the models legs?

I hope they sue, I hope the photographer (from what I've seen of his work on this thread seems a one trick pony - line things up and get person to stand behind them aaaaaand repeat) also sues, I hope the parents of the children sue. I would love to hear what they say about each other in court. Which means no lawsuit will get that far, they'll settle if they sue.

I think the most disturbing thing, as pp have said, is how sad the children look and that those are the shots they picked to publish. Why do kids looking miserable fit the aesthetic they were going for? No good reason I can think of.

I thought the bondage bears were props created for the shoot, but it seems they're actually retailed by the company, is this correct?

Regarding the left wing media I wonder if it comes down to being seen to be progressive and liberal at all times, and it is simply not cool to risk being seen as reactionary in any way.

Yes I think that's true, but christ there's got to be a line somewhere. Turning a blind eye to child abuse because the woke bros are too cool to make a fuss isn't acceptable.

I worked in advertising for years. Big fancy ad agencies. Worked with top photographers.

It's bullshit that this was some kind of unilateral decision by the photographer. He would have been working to a very exacting brief which would have been approved by the brand at every stage.

"Love is for everyone"

Bloody hell.

The photographer is getting loads of negative feedback on Instagram, but Balenciaga seem to have deleted all posts. They’re really hiding from their accountability.

"Love Is For Everyone" at Balenciaga:

twitter.com/twisterfilm/status/1595782646864711680?s=46&t=BOFPCYUNKpP5pNIzcoXDsg

@VestofAbsurdity "The fashion industry is a cess pit of exploitation, there was an eye opening documentary on the abuses within the industry of models by agencies and photographers."

Yes, just look up 'Terry Richardson' aka 'uncle Terry', absolutely considered the coolest edgelord in the industry in the 1990s for his tawdry photographs, often including himself in the 'action' with his young female models. So many big brands, pop groups, celebs queuing up to work with him. And it was absolutely in plain sight.

The photographer? Oh come on! I have a rudimentary knowledge of how fashion spreads are put together, but surely there would have been a concept produced on mood boards and discussed around a boardroom table with all the creative directors, a set designer, a scout very carefully selecting models, a director staging the shoot, specific instructions given to make up artists and hair stylists as to the look (of abuse) they want to achieve etc etc. And yes, the creative who came up with that bloody horrible bear. The bloody photographer is not the problem here. It's the people much higher up the food chain and their twisted and borderline criminal artistic "vision".

Regarding the left wing media I wonder if it comes down to being seen to be progressive and liberal at all times, and it is simply not cool to risk being seen as reactionary in any way.