Street artist leaves ‘paedophilia’ graffiti on Balenciaga store window in London

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Bloggs explained that the graffiti was in response to Balenciaga’s recent campaign controversy, in which the luxury fashion house published two ads involving children, in an interview with Newsweek. A TikToker captured Bloggs defacing the Balenciaga store window in a video captioned: “POV: you’re walking through Central London enjoying the lights and see Balenciaga getting cancelled”. One of the controversial ads, which was for Balenciaga’s holiday gift collection, featured children posing with teddy bear handbags – which critics pointed out appeared to be wearing BDSM and bondage-inspired accessories. Despite taking responsibility for the campaigns, Balenciaga has filed a $25m lawsuit against the production company in charge of its spring 2023 campaign – North Six Inc, and its agent, Nicholas Des Jardins – accusing the company of engaging in “inexplicable acts and omissions” that were “malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless.” There was renewed criticism against Balenciaga this week when critics noticed the high-power office-themed photoshoot featured a book by Belgian artist Michaël Borremans, whose earlier work include depictions of castrated children.