Balenciaga Designer Demna Addresses BDSM Scandal, 'It Unfortunately Was The Wrong Idea'

Balenciaga creative director Demna finally addressed the brand's BDSM ad scandal that drew a ton of backlash from fans and celebrities last year.

The fashion house caused quite a stir when it filmed two separate ad campaigns with kids holding plush teddy bears dressed in leather jackets and BDSM-looking accessories.

Balenciaga has since withdrawn the campaigns and denied the allegations that it encouraged child abuse in any form, even going as far as slamming a $25 million lawsuit on the set designers.

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During a recent interview with Vogue, Demna opened up about the controversy, lawsuit, the brand's negligence, and his path moving forward.

The creative director shared that his intention behind the first campaign, tagged "The Spring 2023 campaign," was to hammer on the idea of power dressing, while the second one, labeled "The Gift Shop Campaign," was made to promote the items for the holiday season.

"Kidswear was a part of the selection for the 'gift shop,' as well as the plush teddy bear bags, referencing punk and DIY culture, absolutely not BDSM, and they were worn by adults in the October 2022 show," he said.

Demna explained that the photographer's props included toys being placed around the room and that the brand wanted to include different varieties of products all at once to cover more ground, hence the reason why the campaigns came out the way they did.

The Georgian-born fashion designer believes he and Balenciaga made a grave error in assuming that surrounding children with those objects would send the correct message.

"It unfortunately was the wrong idea and a bad decision from me. We should not have featured kids in images that included objects that were not related and inappropriate to them," he said.

Demna explained that the whole issue slipped under Balenciaga's nose even as it was vetoed by both internal and external auditors, calling it "an error of judgment."

He apologized for the mistake and pointed out that he was going to be more careful next time and that the brand would pay closer attention to its campaign before putting out any images.

Demna, 41, revealed that the details of the advertisement, which sparked fan outrage and led some to believe that the brand sexualized children, were not intentional and that the two campaigns were unrelated.

"I was shocked when I heard about their presence on the set of the Spring 2023 campaign. It was a set of negligent and unfortunate but not intentional coincidences," he noted.

Demna claimed he had no idea how the materials—which included a ruling from the supreme court stating that the first amendment did not protect against the promotion of child pornography—had come to be there.

He explained that when the allegations started flying in, he and his whole team were shocked, saying that he upholds Balenciaga's values and will continually contend with making her relevant.

Elsewhere in the interview with Vogue, Demna shared that the fashion house is taking steps to avert any such occurrence in the future.

He pointed out that Balenciaga is revamping the image department and putting checks in place to make sure every image goes through a stringent audit process, both internally and externally, before it can be released.

He said, "from my personal point of view, as creative director, I will have to question absolutely everything now. It really changes my way of working, which has previously been more instinctive; doing something that would be seen as maybe provocative just because I was thinking, Oh, that's fun."

Demna divulged that he's learned his lesson from the whole controversy and will be more "mature" and "serious" in his approach to his creativity.