Kim Kardashian says she is “re-evaluating” her working relationship with Balenciaga after the luxury fashion house featured children cuddling teddy bears dressed in bondage gear in its latest advertising campaign.
The Skims founder and reality TV star, who has been an ambassador for the fashion label, broke her silence Sunday after receiving a barrage of messages from fans and commentators urging her to denounce the brand.
In comments posted to her social media, Kardashian said she had waited to speak out “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.”
She said that, as a mother, she was left “shaken by the disturbing images.”
“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 told her 74.2 million Twitter followers on Sunday.
“I appreciate Balenciaga’s removal of the campaigns and apology. In speaking with them, I believe they understand the seriousness of the issue and will take the necessary measures for this never to happen again.”
Kardashian, who famously wore an identity-obscuring Balenciaga ensemble to the Met Gala 2021, was among the many celebrities cast in the Balenciaga couture show during Paris Fashion Week in July. Thursday’s season finale of “The Kardashians” focused on her walking in the Balenciaga show.
On Sunday, she addressed her future with Balenciaga in a follow-up post, writing: “I am currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with — & the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children.”
Kardashian’s statement comes just days after the company retracted the contentious campaign, which was shot by photographer Gabriele Galimberti as part of a project called “Toy Stories,” and apologized on its Instagram page.
“We sincerely apologize for any offense caused by our holiday campaign,” the statement said.
“In this campaign, our plush bear bags should not have been seen with children. We removed the campaign from all platforms right away.”
Galimberti told CNN in a statement Wednesday that he had no control over the direction and shooting of the “Toy Stories” campaign, claiming he was “not entitled in any way to neither choose (sic) the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same.”
After a separate campaign featuring documents from a United States Supreme Court case relating to child pornography laws went viral, Balenciaga issued a second statement on Instagram apologizing for displaying “unsettling documents.” The company said it would take “legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items.”
Galimberti stated that he had “no connection to the photograph in which a Supreme Court document appears.”
Balenciaga cut ties with Kardashian’s ex-husband, rapper Kanye West, last month, amid the ongoing fallout from his anti-Semitic and controversial remarks.
