The designer at the middle of the Balenciaga ad scandal has broken his silence. 

In a post Friday on Demna’s Instagram account, which counts 373,000 followers, Balenciaga’s creative director wrote: “I would like to personally apologize for the unsuitable artistic alternative of concept for the gifting campaign with the children and I take my responsibility. It was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that don’t have anything to do with them.” 

The Georgian designer, who’s susceptible to provocation and subversion in his designs, runway shows and communications, was referring to Balenciaga’s holiday campaign featuring children posing alongside handbags shaped like stuffed bears wearing bondage gear. 

Individually on Friday, Balenciaga president and chief executive officer Cédric Charbit reiterated his “sincere apologies for the offense now we have caused.” 

He sketched out major changes in its “content organization,” vowed to go on a “listening tour” with child protection groups, and to put aside “a major fund for grants to organizations in order that we can assist make a difference in protecting children.” 

The corporate also made an about-face on blaming production company North Six Inc. and set designer Nicolas des Jardins. 

It said it has decided “to not pursue litigation,” but didn’t offer more specifics. 

North Six declined comment Friday afternoon. Des Jardins’ agent at Streeters didn’t respond immediately to media requests. Each parties are getting social media support from Trey Laird, Stefan Beckham, Martha Hunt, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and other creatives and industry professionals.

Earlier this week Gabriele Galimberti, the documentary photographer who shot the campaign with the kids holding the controversial bondage teddy bears, said that he had done so unknowingly, having never worked in fashion. He was also mistakenly criticized for one more controversial Balenciaga campaign, which he had not been involved with. Galimberti said Friday, “They’re finally taking full responsibility as they need to have from the primary moment as an alternative of shifting the blame to me and the opposite company.”

In an additional indication of the blowback Balenciaga faces from the campaign, the British Fashion Council on Friday confirmed that, after chatting with Balenciaga, “the brand has decided to not attend” the Fashion Awards in London on Monday.

Demna was originally a candidate for Designer of the 12 months, alongside peers including Miuccia Prada and Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino. The BFC confirmed that his name isn’t any longer on the list for the award, which is voted on by greater than 1,000 international industry figures.

The Balenciaga ads have sparked outrage on social media, with some consumers gleefully destroying Balenciaga products, others urging a brand boycott and calling for the designer’s ouster. 

Last week, Kim Kardashian said she was “reevaluating” her relationship with the brand, saying she was “shaken by the disturbing images.” 

“I want to learn from this, listen and interact with child protection organizations to know the way I can contribute and assistance on this terrible subject,” Demna’s post read. “As much as I might sometimes prefer to provoke a thought through my work, I might NEVER have an intention to do this with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period. 

“I apologize to anyone offended by the visuals and Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures might be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the longer term but additionally to take accountability in protecting child welfare in every way we are able to.” 

Comments are disabled on the post, the just one on Demna’s feed, and it garnered just a little over 14,000 likes after a couple of hours. 

The designer made no mention of a second campaign that has also brought one other firestorm of criticism and sparked a lawsuit against the production corporations involved. 

That fashion campaign for the spring 2023 collection depicted actresses Nicole Kidman and Isabelle Huppert in a business environment. In a single photo of a handbag, there’s a page within the background from the Supreme Court ruling “United States v. Williams” 2008, which confirms as illegal and never protected by freedom of speech the promotion of kid pornography. 

Kidman is facing heavy criticism for her silence over the ads, which she promoted to her 8.7 million Instagram followers. 

Balenciaga has issued several statements stressing it condemned child abuse and never intended for “it to be included in our narrative.” 

“The 2 separate ad campaigns in query reflect a series of grievous errors for which Balenciaga takes responsibility.”  

One statement detailed: “The primary campaign, the Gift collection campaign, featured children with plush bear bags wearing what some have labelled BDSM-inspired outfits…Our plush bear bags and the Gift collection mustn’t have been featured with children. This was a unsuitable alternative by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images. The responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone. 

“The second, separate campaign for spring 2023, which was meant to duplicate a business office environment, included a photograph with a page within the background from a Supreme Court ruling ‘United States v. Williams’ 2008, which confirms as illegal and never protected by freedom of speech the promotion of kid pornography. All of the items included on this shooting were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents. They turned out to be real legal papers more than likely coming from the filming of a television drama. The inclusion of those unapproved documents was the results of reckless negligence for which Balenciaga has filed a grievance. We take full accountability for our lack of oversight and control of the documents within the background and we could have done things in another way.” 

Balenciaga was said to be looking for $25 million in damages through its legal motion against North Six and Des Jardins. 

North Six logistically managed the campaign within the office setting, nevertheless it was not involved with the gift collection campaign featuring the questionable teddy bears, as reported. 

Fashion casting director Piergiorgio Del Moro, who counts greater than half 1,000,000 followers on Instagram, said in a post earlier Friday that he stood with North Six and des Jardins. 

His post preceded Charbit’s announcement about ending the litigation. 

“It’s troubling to see a fashion house knowingly deflect blame on the hired production company to avoid responsibility for its own creative decisions,” he wrote. “Clients are on the set and are liable for all approvals through and, most significantly, have final say before all images are released to the general public. 

“Production doesn’t create the vision but works to serve clients and convey to life their vision, ot contribute their very own,” he continues. “Everybody in the style industry knows how closely brands create, test, define and safeguard their image, including micro-managing all media related to such imagery. I stand by the community to be sure that blaming production corporations for the fallout and problems related to vision and image doesn’t develop into the norm and hope that Balenciaga will see to it that North Six’s name is correctly cleared.” 

Charbit said Balenciaga would “learn from our mistakes as a company” and institute a bunch of latest controls. 

“Our current process for content validation has failed, and we recognize the necessity to do higher,” Charbit said within the statement. “On the interior side, we nominate with immediate effect a picture board liable for evaluating the character of our content from concept to final 
assets, including legal, sustainability and variety expertise.  On the external side, now we have appointed a best-in-class agency to evaluate 
and evaluate our content organization.” 

As well as, he said “now we have reorganized our image department to make sure full alignment with our corporate guidelines.” 

The brand new steps appear to fly within the face of the wide creative berth and inventive freedom typically granted to creative directors. 

To make certain, Demna has raised eyebrows and ire with fashion shows resembling scenes of the refugee crisis in Ukraine and the muddy trenches of war – and accessories including a luxury leather trash bag and threadbare sneakers that looked as if it would mock the poor. 

On Friday, Charbit said, “we wish to learn, help and contribute to guard children” and outlined more corrective controls. 

“We’re starting trainings on responsible communication across our teams,” he wrote. “Along with my team, we are going to go on a ‘listening tour’ to have interaction with advocacy groups who aim to guard children. 

“I would like to personally reiterate my sincere apologies for the offense caused and take my responsibility,” he added. “At Balenciaga, we stand together for kids safety and don’t tolerate any form of violence and hatred message.”

— With contributions from Samantha Conti, London