Fashion at its best is daring and, at times, deeply provocative. But cross the line and a brand, caught in a maelstrom of criticism, can quickly be cancelled. At the end of last year, Balenciaga found itself on the back-foot of a burgeoning image crisis after the release of its holiday ad campaign.
One of the images showed a child standing on a sofa with a teddy bear, wearing a studded leather harness that looked like bondage, in their hands. The controversy continued when people realised that the set for a separate photoshoot, the brand's campaign for spring 2023, included 'fake office documents' that, as it later emerged, related to a child pornography legal case. In a statement, Balenciaga explained that the set included a photo with a page in the background from 'United States Vs Williams'. The 2008 Supreme Court ruling, it turns out, 'confirms as illegal and not protected by freedom of speech the promotion of child pornography'.
In the thick of the fall-out, Balenciaga initially released a statement saying that it was 'taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our spring 23 campaign photoshoot', which has been quoted on The Cut. The brand subsequently dropped the lawsuit and released another statement taking full responsibility: 'Our plush bears and the gift collection should not have been featured with children. This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in accessing and validating images.' A third statement was then posted on social media - and emailed to press - saying, 'Balenciaga takes the following actions with the objective to learn from our mistakes as an organization,' including the appointment of an 'Image Board'.
With criticism amplified by the echo chamber of social media - users were swift to call out the campaigns as 'disgusting' and 'sick' - Balenciaga suddenly found itself frozen out of fashion's good books. It used to be a hit factory of hyped products. Now, celebrities were queueing up to distance themselves - Kim Kardashian, whose wardrobe has practically been sponsored by Balenciaga, tweeted that she was 're-evaluating her relationship with the brand' - while several stores around the world were vandalised.
But once the noise dies down, and the news cycle moves on, you can't help but wonder: how much impact will this actually have? Balenciaga has started posting again on Instagram - a series of pictures, captioned 'Garde-Robe 23', hit the platform a week ago - and is showing at next month's Paris Fashion Week.
But now, evidence has emerged that the brand has not just fallen out of favour on Instagram, but out of shoppers' baskets. And that matters. (No celebrities might have worn it on the red carpet since December 2022, but it doesn't necessarily mean that, behind closed doors and off social media, people won't still be stealthily shopping Balenciaga. And interestingly, while she might have renounced the brand in public, Kim has continued to wear its boots and jeans as recently as 21 January.) The Lyst Index was released this morning - the global search platform's quarterly report which ranks fashion’s hottest brands and products, in this case from October-December - and, for the first time, Balenciaga doesn't feature in the hottest brands top 10. Dropping seven places, and now at number 11, it also doesn't have a single item in the hottest products top 10. While this is significant - and offers a window into consumer behaviour that suggests that being 'cancelled' does come with consequences (i.e. hitting a brand where it really hurts: its bottom line) - it's worth pointing out that it's only just out of the top 10, beating brands like Versace (ranked 13), Fendi (14), Louis Vuitton (15) and Burberry (18).
Street-stylers were still wearing its bags at Copenhagen Fashion Week - both new and old styles, indicating that they're not differentiating between products that were designed by Demna, Balenciaga's creative director, and products that preceded his tenure - and the brand hasn't been dropped from major luxury retailers like Net-a-Porter, Farfetch, My Theresa and Matches Fashion.
Will shoppers return with the same force as pre-scandal? This is far from being fashion's first controversy, and other luxury brands - having done similar damage limitation - have managed to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of their fan bases. But if there's one learning to take from the Lyst Index, it's that, whether it's because they truly disagree with the brand's values or whether it's because they themselves don't want to risk being cancelled, shoppers have both a conscience and common sense.