In the early and mid 2000s, celebrity culture really took off — paparazzis where everywhere stalking celebrities, from actors and singers to models and socialités. And when the blogger era bloomed, we all became obsessed with street style and watching models off the runway. While the aughts are still trending, Balenciaga takes the opportunity to put together some icons from those times: its emblematic Le City Bag, which has been revamped by Demna, and those paparazzi snapshots that filled pages and pages both online and on magazines.
But these are not your typical new faces; Balenciaga, with its influence and know-how, presents a campaign starring none other than some of the biggest names in modelling: Claudia Schiffer, Alek Wek, Amber Valleta, Natasha Poly, Tyra Banks, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Malgosia Bela. To spice things up, they’ve added a couple of more icons into the mix: actress Lucy Liu (she truly reigned supreme in the 2000s with films like Kill Bill: Volume I and Charlie’s Angels) and multi-hyphenate star Paris Hilton.
With their usual ironic sense of humour and shocking value, Balenciaga has taken these snapshot photos and added digitally their new Le City Bag onto them. So if you think something looks a bit off — you’re right, it certainly is. But don’t blame AI yet, this feels more ‘handmade’ (can anything digital be considered handmade though?) and even naive, like when you yourself played with Photoshop and Gimp in your family computer. Inspired by stock photo websites, the House has added a watermark that underlines the concept of paparazzi imagery, taking us back to simpler times.
