NEW YORK, United States — Reality show star and
social media titan
Kim Kardashian said she is “re-evaluating” her involvement
with luxury fashion house Balenciaga, after it apologized for ads featuring
children holding teddy bears wearing what critics called bondage gear.
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The French brand, part of the luxury Kering group,
last week withdrew the photos from the Spring/Summer 2023 advertising campaign.
Two of them showed young children holding handbags in the shape of teddy bears,
which were wearing black leather straps with silver studs.
Internet commentators noticed another photo from a
Balenciaga-Adidas ad collaboration showed printed documents from a US Supreme
Court ruling on child pornography.
After that revelation,
Balenciaga filed a $25
million lawsuit against the company that produced the advertisements, according
to reports.
“As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the
disturbing images,” Kardashian, a celebrity ambassador for the brand, wrote on
Instagram Sunday night, adding that she had spent the last few days talking
with the Balenciaga team “to understand for myself how this could have
happened”.
“The safety of
children must be held with the highest regard and any attempts to normalize
child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society — period,” she
wrote.
“As for my future with Balenciaga, I am currently
re-evaluating my relationship with the brand,” the star posted to her account,
which has 74 million followers.
Last week, Balenciaga posted an apology on its own
Instagram account. “Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with
children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all
platforms,” the post said.
They then posted another apology, this time
addressing the ad that featured the court documents referencing child
pornography laws.
“We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in
our campaign. We take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action
against the parties responsible,” the post said.
The New York Post reported that Balenciaga had filed
a $25 million lawsuit against production company North Six and set designer
Nicholas Des Jardins.
Amelia Brankov, a lawyer for Des Jardins, said there
“certainly was no malevolent scheme going on”.
“As Balenciaga is aware, numerous boxes of documents
simply were sourced from a prop house as rental items,” she told AFP.
“Moreover, representatives from Balenciaga were
present at the shoot, overseeing it and handling papers and props, and Des
Jardins as a set designer was not responsible for image selection from the
shoot,” the lawyer added.
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