- Balenciaga's creative director has apologized for the fashion brands now-pulled holiday ad campaign.
- The recent controversial campaign was accused of sexualizing children.
Balenciaga's creative director has broken his silence on the luxury fashion brand's $4 that featured children holding plush teddy bear bags outfitted in bondage gear.
Designer Demna Gvasalia apologized for the now-pulled ad campaign — $4 — and said it was the "wrong artistic choice" in an Instagram post on Friday.
"I want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility. It was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that had nothing to do with them," the Georgian designer wrote.
Gvasalia added, "As much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period."
"I need to learn from this, listen and engage with child protection organizations to know how I can contribute and help on this terrible subject," he said.
Gvasalia, who became Balenciaga's artisitic director in 2015, continued, "I apologize to anyone offended by the visuals and Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures will be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the future but also to take accountability in protecting child welfare in every way we can."
Balenciaga published the ad campaign in mid-November, sparking outrage on social media.
Days later, the luxury fashion house apologized and announced that it had pulled the ads from all of its platforms.
"We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign," Balenciaga said in a statement.
Zoomed in images of one of the ads showed documents referring to a Supreme Court ruling that upheld a law that criminalizes child sexual abuse images.
"We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign," Balenciaga wrote, explaining that it strongly condemns the "abuse of children in any form."
Balenciaga has since $4 behind the ad campaign.