The fashion industry is hardly known for its respect for children and decency but the recent Balenciaga saga takes it to a new level.
For those unfamiliar with the Spanish-founded, now French, fashion house responsible for T-shirts that will set you back a tidy A$895 and high-heel Crocs (for about the same price), Balenciaga is an elite fashion brand favoured by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber. It’s a very gay-friendly brand – the theme of its 2022 “Pride” collection is “Anybody is Queer”.
This week it made the news for a shocking campaign depicting children holding teddy bears dressed in BDSM bondage gear and an image with clearly visible documents relating to a child abuse court case. Another image included a book known for disturbing images of children.
It’s a scandal. And thankfully, for the most part, the condemnation has been swift and unequivocal – a rarity in these boundary-pushing times.
The management of Balenciaga issued a statement and an apology and is reviewing how these images slipped through. Kim Kardashian spoke out in condemnation and is re-evaluating her relationship with the brand.
There is a growing chorus of people calling on Balenciaga ambassador Nicole Kidman to condemn the campaign. Kidman has thus far remained silent.
So far so good, right? The campaign was creepy. It was shut down immediately. Everyone is outraged. The company is remorseful.
Not so fast!
The media class, who love producing fawning coverage of luxury brands almost as much as they love chasing down old ladies who voted for Donald Trump, are creating a backlash against the backlash.
The New York Times explainer framed it as something “right-leaning media outlets” and Fox News bogeyman Tucker Carlson have seized on. For the benefit of readers who had never heard of Carlson, the Times smeared him by linking him to QAnon, the fringe conspiracy theorists. So when Carlson said:
“Here you have a major international retail brand promoting kiddie porn and sex with children, and not promoting it subtly but right out in the open.”
… every word of which is true, Times readers were meant to snicker at his outraged naivete.
For certain prestige media outlets this is always the play: you can’t call something out as morally wrong, but you can sneer at the Big Bad Right for noticing it.
Related, the efforts to get Kidman to comment help transfer responsibility. It’s not enough to state the wrongness of the campaign (if you call it out at all), everyone associated with the company must state it too. I don’t think anyone believes that Kidman supports these images, but public affirmations of the Current Thing are necessary to maintain your status these days.