Why is Balenciaga still alive?

Why is Balenciaga still alive?

Balenciaga. The name on it's own hits your brain, doesn’t it? It’s luxury and style, and so much more. We see celebrities wearing their outfits and accessories all the time, and think, “That is so gorgeous isn't it?"

If not that, you probably thought, “That trash bag can’t actually be 1790 dollars.”. All these thoughts relevant with their brand. But it goes so much darker than just ground breaking haute couture.

Believe it or not, Balenciaga has had some disgusting scandals that make you wonder, exactly how twisted are they?

Balenciaga faced a global crisis in 2022 for two major reasons. Their social media advertisements.

• The Holiday Gifting Campaign,

• The Handbag Reveal.

The first one sounds sweet doesn't it? It is terrifying. The ad was supposed to encourage gifting using the designer teddy bears they had made. But what the ad featured was not just innocent teddy bears. The pictures showed children, not younger than 12, holding the teddy bears. But these teddy bears had leather harnesses and inappropriate bondage around them. This immediately caused an uproar of concerned parents and buyers. The brand was under scrutiny immediately. At least for a while.

The second ad. A simple, stylish, handbag reveal. At least that's what it was supposed to be. It was a casual post by their marketing team; set in an office like setting. With the black bag set on top of what seemed like office papers. It was then revealed that these so-called "papers" were copies of The Supreme Court's documents. These props were printed legal papers from a case in 2008, related to child pornography laws.

Two ads. One word. Disturbing.

Following these two ads, 2022 was basically a downfall for Balenciaga. There were fallouts and Balenciaga naturally pulled the ads. The brand filed a lawsuit in response, against the production company North Six for 25 million dollars. The CEO came out and issued apologies. In his words, he called them: "grievous errors".

Now the real question is; was this Balenciaga's fault, or not? Following these events, they have continued to produce products under scrutiny like the infamous "Towel Skirt" and "Trash Pouch", had falling outs with a couple celebrities and so much more. But somehow, they are only growing more and more popular. Fashion shows, dressing celebrities, and overtaking other brands.

But when we really look into their history, we're only met with terrible allegations. The brand has promoted trash aesthetics through their Lay's Potato Chip Bag (which was made to resemble the crushed bag), and thieved designs from FashionUnited, plagiarized merchandise from the metal band Cradle of Filth.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg believe it or not. These ads may just be the two most normal things they've done among other acts. There are so many behind-the-scenes action we don't see anymore thanks to media and public opinion.

Truth is, Balenciaga is blatant about their racism, committed multiple frauds; including plagiarism, fabric deception, assault, and scapegoating independent creators. But most of all?

The transparence in their children-related acts.

Their PR teams pressurized parents who did not accept in posting inappropriate ads of their children. And for those parents who fought really hard? They used loopholes to bypass legalities to use the children of their own employees and use them obscenely as models without the needed parental authorization.

But nothing's seemed to happen to them.

Now that brings us to the first question. Why is Balenciaga still alive? The brand is still thriving and staging shows in Paris Fashion Week like any other year.

Because brand power is stronger than anything.