“Euphoria” actress Alexa Demie has deleted Balenciaga campaign images from her Instagram feed and has also unfollowed the label. Social media fashion and fan feeds are alleging she has cut ties from the label because of controversy generated over two ad campaigns, neither of which featured Demie.
The 32-year-old actress hasn’t made a statement about Balenciaga or the removal of the images from her feed. She was last spotted in public at the Moët & Chandon Holiday Season Celebration party in New York with very of-the moment actress Taylor Russell. Demie wore vintage Alaïa while Russell was spotted in a look from Schiaparelli‘s spring haute couture collection.
Demie maintains a tight Instagram feed, which currently features just 28 images, so it’s entirely possible the Balenciaga images were removed because her relationship with Balenciaga reached its end. Demie is more active on Instagram Stories where she recently published an image of herself in the Alaïa dress.
Demie has her coming out party as a Balenciaga muse back in January 2022, revealed with a Vogue video in which she prepares for Euphoria’s season two premiere in looks by the French label.
She was last spotted wearing Balenciaga, pre-controversy in October for the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles. Vogue covered the actress at the time with a headline reading “Alexa Demie Isn’t Done With Her Balenciaga Era Just Yet.”
Following the controversy, Balenciaga ambassador Kim Kardashian issued a statement noting she was reevaluating her relationship with the label. “I am currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with — & the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children,” she wrote.
While the SKIMS CEO and reality star has yet to officially break ties, according to TMZ, she turned down an offer from Balenciaga to partake in a spring 2023 ad campaign. As well, she has pulled the plug on plans to wear Balenciaga at upcoming events.
The Balenciaga controversy began with a November gift guide featured children posing with Teddy bears. One of the bears held by a girl was styled with a leather harness, which was viewed as having sexual connotations by some and inappropriate for a children’s campaign. The second campaign titled Garde-Robe featuring models Nicole Kidman, Isabelle Huppert and Bella Hadid. Shot in an office setting, an eagle-eyed Twitter user in mid-November noted a folder whose content appeared to be paperwork from a Supreme Court decision on child pornography laws.
While the two ads were shot many months apart by two different photographers, the Twitter user who critiqued the ads in mid-November presented them as though the images were from a single campaign, which helped fuel mass outrage, pushing coverage from social media fashion channels to network news coverage.
The label has since apologized for the campaigns and also issued as statement laying out actions it’s taking to prevent them from happening again.
