Bronx rapper Cardi B scores a big fashion win with news she’s announced as the face of Balenciaga‘s latest campaign. The announcement was revealed with a massive billboard hung on the outside of the Louvre Museum in Paris. In the image, Cardi is shot laying against a grass backdrop filled with toys along with a white bag from the label’s Neo Classic collection.
Reacting to images of the billboard on Instagram, Cardi (real name Belcalis Almánzar) wrote, “a lookin at the face of a @Balenciaga campaign! I remember how I felt seeing myself on a billboard in NYC Times Square but PARIS! Wish I was there to see it in person!”
Cardi is not new to Balenciaga and shouted out the brand’s popular knit upper Speed sneakers in “I Like It,” a song released in 2018.
The campaign marks Cardi’s debut as the face of a major fashion house. The Grammy Award-winning 27-year-old also boasts an ongoing role as an ambassador for Reebok, and has collaborated with Fashion Nova on two, well-received collections with the second one raking in a record-breaking $1 million on the first day of sales.
Tapping a big name celebrity is also a first for Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia who joined the label in 2015 and has shied away from using celebrities. Until now, he has chosen to make a statement celebrating everyday people by casting his own peers or street cast individuals without modeling backgrounds.
Check out Cardi and Balenciaga’s Louvre ad below.
