Nicole Kidman risks backlash as she is named the new face of Balenciaga – after refusing to cut ties with the brand following BDSM themed kids’ clothing controversy
The Bondage Bears Christmas campaign
The scandal broke when Balenciaga released its 2022 holiday advertising campaign, which featured children posing with their cuddle bags. The bags look like teddy bears and are dressed in BDSM gear.
The children also appeared at the photo shoot surrounded by empty wine and champagne glasses.
The clearly adult themes immediately raised concerns for many who wondered why children had ever been used.
Balenciaga initially ignored the scandal and apparently let the photographer involved, Gabriele Galimberti, take the heat.
He released a statement saying he had no control over the content of the shoot and eventually Balenciaga released his own statement agreeing with him and taking responsibility for the campaign.
It has now been taken off the internet.
The hidden child pornography documents
After the BDSM bears fiasco, eagle-eyed critics began scrutinizing the rest of Balenciaga's campaigns.
They soon discovered that in the background of an image from the Spring '23 campaign was a printout of a Supreme Court ruling on whether Internet child pornography could legally be considered free speech.
Following the bear scandal, many critics said it pointed to a disturbing pattern within Balenciaga.
Balenciaga quickly blamed North Six, a production company that helped arrange the filming, for recording those documents.
They claimed that they entrusted all the props from the photo shoot to North Six and that their team was assured that everything in it was fake.
The disturbing book by an artist whose work depicts naked, castrated toddlers
Balenciaga has yet to answer for the inclusion of a book by Michael Borremans in the background of two of the images from the Spring '23 campaign.
Borremans is a Belgian painter whose work includes a disturbing 2017 series called Fire From The Sun.
It shows naked toddlers – some castrated – playing in a group and sometimes alone.
Lawyers for the brand have yet to respond to DailyMail.com's questions about how the book ended up in the photo shoot.
In this image from Balenciaga's scrapped Spring '23 campaign, Isabelle Huppert sits in front of a stack of books, including one celebrating Michael Borremans, a Belgian painter whose work is known for depictions of castrated toddlers
Borremans' other work includes his 2017 series Fire From The Sun, in which castrated toddlers and babies see what appears to be severed limbs as they play together naked in a large group.