Balenciaga ambassador Kim Kardashian has finally broken her silence amid backlash against the brand for a photo-shoot, pictures from which featured on the luxury fashion brand’s website as part of its holiday gift shop.
The images included toddlers holding the company’s teddy-bear handbags, with the latter appearing to be dressed in bondage gear, including fishnet shirts and studded leather harnesses and collars.
Kardashian, 42, took to Twitter to say she was “disgusted” and “shaken” by the controversial pictures.
“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,” she began the Twitter thread.
Michael Tran/AFP
“As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images,” she said. “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.”
Kardashian added: “As for my future with Balenciaga, 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.”
Balenciaga came under fire for its Balenciaga Objects collection, which featured a campaign titled “Balenciaga Gift Shop,” shot by Gabriele Galimberti.
The shoot included several photos of children alongside various items.
The images included toy bears wearing fishnet shirts, studded leather harnesses and collars.
In another photo shoot for its new joint-campaign with Adidas, shot by photographer Chris Maggio, people noticed a pile of papers which included a page from the 2008 Supreme Court ruling United States v. Williams.
The ruling upheld the PROTECT Act, a 2003 federal law that criminalizes advertising, promoting, presenting or distributing child pornography.
The photo shoots went viral after one person called out the company on Twitter, writing “the brand ‘Balenciaga’ just did a uh… interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn.’ normal stuff.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
