Balenciaga ambassador Kim Kardashian has broken her silence on the brand’s recent controversy.
Last week, the luxury fashion house was widely criticized on social media for a holiday ad campaign that featured child models holding teddy bears while dressed in bondage gear.
Another ad, promoting a leather handbag, showed court documents that referenced various Supreme Court cases on child pornography. Critics accused the campaign of sexualizing children.
Now, Kim Kardashian – a frequent collaborator with, and outspoken fan of, Balenciaga – has spoken out against them.
In a statement posted to her Twitter and Instagram Sunday, the reality star, 42, said she had been “shaken” by the campaign’s “disturbing images.”
“I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven’t been disgusted and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened,” Kim wrote.
Kim Kardashian ‘re-evaluating’ relationship with Balenciaga amid controversy
In the last few years, Kardashian has become one of the French-owned fashion house’s best-known celebrity supporters. She is close with Demna, the brand’s creative director, and frequently wears his designs on red carpets – including her memorable head mask at the 2021 Met Gala.
Earlier this year, the mogul starred in her own Balenciaga ad campaign and even walked the brand’s runway during Paris Fashion Week.
But the controversial ads, Kim said, had forced a reckoning. The star wrote that she was currently “re-evaluating” her professional relationship with Balenciaga. The future of that relationship, she added, would depend on the brand’s willingness to “accept accountability.”
Last week, Balenciaga issued an apology on Instagram condemning child abuse, then wiped its social media clean.
The controversial ads have been removed from all platforms.
Kim Kardashian addresses Balenciaga controversy: ‘disgusted and outraged’
“I appreciate Balenciaga’s removal of the campaigns and apology,” Kardashian wrote in her statement. After speaking with the brand, she added, she believed they understood the “seriousness of the issue.”
But as a mother of four, Kim wrote, the campaign’s “disturbing” imagery had troubled her.
“The safety of children must be held with the highest regard,” the star added. “Any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society — period.”