Questions remain about elite fashion house Balenciaga’s scandalous ads featuring teddy bears in S&M bondage gear, despite a series of apologies, each more groveling than the last. Balenciaga has dropped a $25 million lawsuit blaming outside photographers and stylists for the disastrous, now-scrapped campaign. As anyone who has ever sat through big firms’ interminable meetings and approvals processes for every last detail in ad campaigns knows, it is risible to blame outside contractors. Control always rests with the client, in this case Balenciaga.

After a global backlash embroiling celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Nicole Kidman, and outbreaks of protests and graffiti, Balenciaga’s creative director Demna Gvasalia finally condemned child abuse and apologised for ‘the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids… it was inappropriate’.

However, the brand’s other campaigns have included design props subtly referencing child porn, sadism, torture and even devils; this is not a one-off. The references are not overt but they are plentiful enough and strewn through recent Balenciaga ad campaigns. There’s a torn page from a US Supreme Court child porn case, a book by artist Michael Borremans whose ‘artistry’ features bloodied, castrated children, film-maker Matthew Barney’s book The Cremaster Cycle – cremaster being the name of a muscle in male genitalia which references his satyr- and anatomy-laden films of the same name. In the teddy bear ads there is a reel of masking tape showing purposely misspelt letters ‘Baalen…’ Baal, for those not up on their myths, was a fertility deity or demon, linked to child sacrifice, and not commonly available on printed masking tape at your local Bunnings. Someone thought up these references, obtained and organised them and placed them just so in a series of Balenciaga ads. This cannot happen by chance, and Balenciaga’s bosses are yet to explain why they thought bondage, porn and paedophilia-linked themes might be the way to sell handbags. Here’s the key question: Was this an ill-advised and tasteless attempt at edgy, tradition-busting fashion by decadent and brain-fading creatives, or something darker seeping out of the back office?

Citizen journalists on the newly freed Twitter have provided more context, pointing to key upscale stylist Lotta Volkova, described by the website Business of Fashion in 2021 as Gvasalia’s muse and in-house stylist for Balenciaga and Vetements, Gvasalia’s other brand. Volkova’s Instagram has now deleted many posts and gone private, but not before Twitter handles such as #NatlyDenise brought to light posts of Satanic images, children in bondage and distress, bloodied children’s bedrooms, children holding skulls and more. Go there if you’re not convinced, but be warned, it is a horror show. The sado-masochism, paedophilia and child torture starts to look more like a feature than a bug.

Moreover, brand ambassador Kardashian has taken to wearing black full-face masks to various celebrity events such as the Met Gala, which she attended with Gvasalia. We see zipped leather masks, fabric masks, solid plastic masks. Even Kim’s child North West recently wore all black, with face mask, at a Fashion Week event. This looks like, new word alert, ‘gimp’. Wikipedia notes: ‘Gimp (sadomasochism), a sexual submissive dressed generally in a bondage suit…’ Blocking out a whole face is a depersonalising, reductive act that turns a human into simply a body.

The scandal has been greeted with shrugs from the powers-that-be and most celebrities involved. Where are the IT giants and banks condemning the brand, where are the pundits, academics and child protection agencies expressing their outrage? It took a fortnight for Gvasalia to apologise, after previous attempts to dodge responsibility failed. Brand ambassador Kardashian is ‘reviewing’ her contract, Kidman has said nothing. The NY Times wrote a piece on the scandal entitled: ‘When high fashion and QAnon collide’, effectively whitewashing any wrongdoing by the brand. Balenciaga is a $2 billion brand, owned by luxury fashion powerhouse the Kering Group, whose stable includes Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron and many more; that’s a power of glossy advertising.

Were this happening in isolation, it would not be so concerning. But we now also have Drag Queen Story Times for young children, gender fluidity, porn ‘literacy’ and LGBTIQ material pushed in schools, transgender surgery promoted for teens, schools adopting mixed bathrooms and sports teams roiled by transgender issues. Balenciaga’s campaign in this context looks like part of the same movement, the fashion normalisation of what were previously taboos, not a random transgression.

And here’s some wider context: it is occurring at a time when US sex trafficking is surging, with the collapse of the southern border. Helpfully for the crime gangs, in March 2021 the Biden regime stopped requiring FBI checks on sponsors for UACs (Unaccompanied Alien Children). Former CBS News correspondent Lara Logan says the US has now become the sex trafficking centre of the world. She speaks of brothels with 40 or more victims, many teens and children, forced to comply under threat of deportation. Project Veritas ran an expose a fortnight ago with whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas claiming the US Department of Health and Human Services was knowingly lodging children with criminals; when she complained to a superior, she was told, ‘We don’t get sued by traffickers’. Rep. Andy Biggs said recently, ‘Our government is actually the logistics arm of the cartel’s child trafficking rings.’

Balenciaga of course has nothing to do with child sex trafficking, but the erosion of traditional Judeo-Christian taboos against paedophilia and child abuse is part of a wider decadence descending on the West, and that’s where I would place the Balenciaga ads. Fashion has long flirted with shock and mischief, and has now crossed the line into knowing nods to sexual offenses and depravity.

Living in New York as the Trump campaign rolled out, I followed media closely, and learned about prohibited topics such as Epstein’s Lolita Express and Pizzagate. None of these could be talked about in polite NY society – heck, you couldn’t even mention Trump without ritual condemnations of the cursed name.

Then, long after I had learnt about Little St James Island, its odd blue-striped temple and guests such as Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey, the truth emerged; Epstein was tried, convicted, jailed and suicided, and we all knew that many members of US elites had been guilty of child abuse all along. Let us hope Balenciaga has learnt its lesson.