Balenciaga Threw Children, Kardashian, Kidman, Hadid and Fashion World to the Wolves
/Kanye West issued a statement on behalf of Balenciaga Thursday, December 1 — after he spent most of the day extolling Adolf Hitler and the positive attributes of Nazis.
“I stand by Balenciaga and denounce all witch hunts and I cancel cancel culture Jesus is King Ending trafficking doesn’t start or end with a fashion campaign for Christ Sake,” West said in the midst of a Twitterstorm late Thursday, before Elon Musk suspended his account.
West — legally known as Ye — followed his post above with “Never turn our backs Demna and the Balenciaga family for life Cancel cancel culture Jesus please heal.”
It was Kanye’s swastika on top of a Star of David that finally got Twitter owner Elon Musk to shut West down.
Who knows what finally prompted Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia to issue a statement on Friday — taking responsibility for the destructive to children Balenciaga campaign and a related Balenciaga campaign for boss-lady grownups.
If Ye is to be believed, Balenciaga’s Demna actually texted his very close friend on Friday, begging West to ask his fans to “stop Denma hate.” We didn’t see the tweets and Kanye’s Twitter account is now suspended.
Ye suposedly responded with “Love cures everythng, Love Denma.” So that is the context of Kanye’s tweets urging love towards Balenciaga.
Ye and Demna: A Relationship That Can’t Be Disentangled?
As the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman wrote in October, “The fashion brand [Balenciaga] and the rapper [Kanye West] have had an intense love affair.” Friedman continued: “Ye has been known to refer to himself as Demna’s straight husband. And, as with any marriage, it is possible the Demna-Balenciaga-Ye connection is so intertwined and interdependent that they are not sure how to disentangle it.”
Balenciaga supposedly cut ties with Kanye [Ye] West in late October 2021. Ending the friendship between Demna and Ye is far more challenging, given their alleged creative synergy.
One must ask, though, are others — either innocent bystanders or ambassadors for the brand — hurt in the cocoon of their private relationship?
Is Balenciaga Astoundingly Creative or Just Edgy and Subversive Enough to Get Headlines?
Balenciaga forces consumers to question what “taste” even means anymore at a time in America when progressive Democrats are regularly accused of being sexual ‘groomers’ of children.
My own anger at Balenciaga comes from three main sources:
1) Few Professionals Believe that the Kiddie BDSM Bears Campaign Didn’t Come Out of Demna’s Staff Orbit — If Not the Designer Himself
In refusing until now to accept responsibility for a Balenciaga campaign that few of us believe ever came to life without the approval of Demna or someone very high up, who reports to him at Balenciaga, Demna undercuts his own relationship with the fashion industry.
Until Friday, Balenciaga has blamed everyone but their own executives for this awful mistake somehow happening. We know how creative photoshoots happen and who is in charge of what.
2) Balenciaga Threw Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, Bella Hadid and more to the Wolves
Nicole Kidman, Bella Hadid Call for Balenciaga Garde Robe Order in the Boardroom AOC Fashion
However the campaign came to be, in refusing to take responsibility for the child pornography images themselves — instead of blaming everyone else including the photographer — Balenciaga’s Demna Gvasalia and CEO Cédric Charbit frankly threw Kim Kardashian to the wolves — as Balenciaga’s biggest face.
The mother of four, who was recently honored by Baby2Baby at its annual gala, is a frequent face for the Balenciaga brand. Were they thinking about Kim for one minute when launching these images?
To a lesser extent, they did the same thing with Nicole Kidman and Bella Hadid in the recent Garde Robe campaign, which AOC thought was terrific.
I was so happy not to see garbage bags and people slogging through mud [which famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung might say suggests something about Demna’s own sense of self and not the rest of us] that it never occurred me to zoom in on the papers on the desk and credenza.
To suggest that it was an accident that the papers referred to a kiddie porn court case is absurd. And we all know it — BUT let me be clear that I am not calling out Balenciaga and Demna, because I do not want to be sued by their “discredit everyone but us — the perpetrators” legal strategy.
The Balenciaga folks are high-minded, principled business leaders advocating the highest ethical standards for their brand and the way they do business.
We just don’t understand the inside joke they are playing on us.
Violence Against the LGBTQ Community in America Is Skyrocketing
3) We all condemn the world of child pornography and using kids as ‘edgy props in a Balenciaga campaign. But what upsets me the most about this Balenciaga story and the executives refusing to take responsibility for it is the November 20, 2022 shootings at Club Q in Colorado Springs.
As progressive Democrats we are operating under the cloud of being ‘groomers’ of kids for pedophiles. That horric charge leveled at us at random by the MAGA crowd does not need Balenciaga jumping into the fray and lighting a bonfire that gives them more ammunition.
America has angry vigilantes toting AR-15s and other high-capacity guns killing people at random — and many of those people are members of the LGBTQ community.
In fact, Balenciaga has made ‘props’ out of all of us, not only children.
From my point of view, their need of PR and profits is more important than the careers of women like Kardashian, Kidman and Hadid. It’s as if we all exist to support Demna’s ego and alleged great talent.
There is no doubt that fashion world made a demi-god of Demna Gvasalia, and so one can argue that we are getting what we deserve. But the people who died in Club Q did not deserve what they got.
If Balenciaga or any other fashion brand is stoking this fire for their own amusement and notoriety, shame on them.
LGBTQ people experience four times more interpersonal violence than non-LGBTQ people, according to UCLA's Williams Institute. Murders of trans people in America 2021was tracking to double from 2020, while anti-LGBTQ legislation at the state level has skyrocked.
I have nothing but disgust for Balenciaga’s behavior in this entire proceeding. But it’s the innocent LGBTQ people shot up all over Amnerica and the children being trafficked across our borders that suffer the most.
Why Balenciaga wants to support the degenerates is beyond me. And I know that as of December 2, they say they will support anti-child porn campaigns. Still, it took satirical, dark minds at Balenciaga to create these PR stunts in the first place.
As if we don’t have enough to worry about, needy, oversized egos use such a sad state of affairs in which to frolic. ~ Anne
These are the apologies issued by Balenciaga executives on Friday, December 2, 2022