Shot by Stef Mitchell, the French house’s intimate new campaign takes us into the homes of “friends of the brand”
Kim Kardashian has gone through many style evolutions throughout the years, but presently she’s in a dedicated era of Balenciaga. The former AnOther cover star began wearing custom full looks designed by the house’s creative director Demna Gvasalia – who now goes by simply ‘Demna’ – last year, stirring the fashion internet into a frenzy with a series of divisive, surreal looks. Things reached a fever pitch upon the reveal of Kardashian’s Met Ball outfit last May, for which she wore a morphsuit-esque lycra number and a T-shirt design by Balenciaga, which was teased with an equally intense leather gimp mask look the day before. Demna was also behind the white dress and veil Kardashian wore as part of a wedding ceremony recreation at Kanye West’s – who now simply goes by ‘Ye’ – Donda tour, as well as a gloved pink catsuit for her no-holds-barred Saturday Night Live appearance.
So it should come as no surprise that the reality TV star is now the face of the French house’s latest campaign, which captures “friends of the brand” in their homes and places of work. Unveiled this afternoon, the intimate Stef Mitchell-shot images see Kardashian recline in her museum-like Calabasas house, holding a phone up to take a selfie in a playful wink to her powerful social media presence. Meanwhile, legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert is captured at her eye-wateringly chic home in Paris. Tommy Blue was also photographed at his place, and Marie-Agnès Diene and Justin Bieber were documented at their respective studios.
The clothes featured in the campaign celebrate the the unique and disruptive vision Demna has carved out at the helm of Balenciaga: sculptural tailoring, sportswear-inflected outerwear, figure-hugging bodysuits, bug-eyed wrap sunglasses, and futuristic accessories. “The campaign focuses on those products that continue from season to season, becoming timeless,” says the brand of the images, which are set to be scaled on famous façades worldwide, starting with the Théâtre de la Ville in the heart of Paris. “I’m shy as a character, but I’m a social voyeur,” Demna said of his creative practice in a conversation with fellow designer Alessandro Michele back in 2020. “I love observing things and putting them through my creative filter giving them a complexity, different or new context. It’s like a game play to me.”
