Demna Gvasalia - Designer, Creative Director of Balenciaga

[Deleted member 7575]

Wait until they find out about Balenciaga's baby doll dresses.

Source: V&A website

 

[gallianostan]

If we’re going to get really crazy, how long until these loons realize that Saint Laurent is also owned by Kering and discover La Vilaine Lulu!

View attachment 1222494

biblio

oh.. this would be a pr NIGHTMARE.

between lulu f*cking an old man and killing babies with red wine... i would fear for vaccarello's livelihood.

 

[Caffeine]

I don't know if it will require all that, but it will require a total reset and a radical repositioning in the market.

Part of the issue is that they completely flushed the brand's heritage and values down the drain.

They're going to have to do all the work of building that back up. Which is total shame.

I doubt other luxury brands will make the same mistake any time soon.

It was their hubris.
They had thought that by not responding, this would eventually die down. But nope, it has been amplified many times over. The celebrities who kept on posting their usual stuff pretending this never happened made it even worse.
At the very least it was a PR disaster. They should have reacted, given a sincere apology and moved on by firing the teams and leaders responsible. Instead, they waited and had media blame on qanon.

Blaming the fiasco on Qanon is utterly ignorant of how the average person absolutely hates pedo stuff. They misread normie's culture.

 

[LadyJunon]

If we’re going to get really crazy, how long until these loons realize that Saint Laurent is also owned by Kering and discover La Vilaine Lulu!

View attachment 1222494

biblio

Here's the Wikipedia article. It's only available in French, so I translated it into English to the best of my capabilities underneath.

The Original:

La Vilaine Lulu est un album de bandes dessinées, ou «Contes pour enfants sadiques ou avancés», destiné aux adultes publié en 1967 par Yves Saint Laurent chez l’éditeur Claude Tchou.

Description
Lulu, l'héroïne, est une petite fille capricieuse, bornée, narcissique, mauvaise. Elle n’en fait qu’à sa tête, prête aux pires horreurs pour satisfaire ses désirs en toute circonstance : Lulu à l’école, Lulu à Deauville, Lulu masseuse, Lulu en boîte de nuit, Lulu idole des jeunes, Lulu à la télévision, Lulu en colonie de vacances ou Lulu amoureuse d’un pompier.

L'ouvrage porte en introduction la mention: «En outre, toute ressemblance avec des personnes qui existent ou qui ont existé est parfaitement voulue. Toutes ces aventures ont été tirées de faits réels.»

Le quotidien de la Vilaine Lulu est fait de meurtres et de viols, dont elle est l'auteur.

Historique
Lulu est née quelque dix ans auparavant, lorsqu’Yves Saint-Laurent travaillait chez Christian Dior: «Nous étions jeunes, et nous nous amusions beaucoup, raconte le couturier. Souvent, après six heures, un collaborateur de Dior (Jean-Pierre Frère) se déguisait. Un soir, il avait remonté ses pantalons jusqu’aux genoux. Je me souviens, il portait de longues chaussettes noires. Dans la cabine des mannequins, il avait trouvé un jupon de tulle rouge et un chapeau de gondolier. Tout petit, presque inquiétant avec son air têtu et rusé, il m’avait impressionné et je lui avais dit : «Tu es la vilaine Lulu.»

Bien que publié beaucoup plus tard, l'ouvrage a été écrit et dessiné dans les années 1950. Mettant en scène masturbation, tortures, pédophilie, meurtres et dépression latente, l'œuvre a scandalisé.

L'album La Vilaine Lulu a été réédité en 2002 par les éditions Tchou, puis en 2010 par les Éditions de La Martinière.

Analyse
Cette œuvre, présentée comme une critique grinçante de la société contemporaine, met en scène un grand nombre de maltraitances sur enfants dont l'enlèvement ou le sacrifice humain\meurtre rituel, de rites sataniques dont l'abus sexuel ritualisé sataniste et idéalise la pédocriminalité en libertinage sexuel des enfants. On y trouve une référence au catharisme et des scènes de violence anticatholiques.

Dans cette BD, le sensible Yves Saint Laurent, masochiste autoproclamé, acteur systématique passif dans les couples qu'il compose, prendrait sa revanche avec une vie rêvée de petite fille dominatrice, sournoise et vicieuse qui n'en fait qu'à sa tête.

Par ailleurs, Betty Catroux était surnommée par Yves Saint Laurent «la petite Pulu».

À posteriori, certains verront dans cette BD les esquisses de parties sexuelles très particulières qu'Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé auraient organisées avec de jeunes adolescents. Bien qu'aucune preuve juridique ne permette de l'établir, des ouï-dires accusent le couple d'avoir eu recours aux réseaux pédophiles marocains.

Source: Wikipedia

My translation:

La Vilaine Lulu is an album of comic strips, or “Tales for sadistic or advanced children”, intended for adults published in 1967 by Yves Saint Laurent with the publisher Claude Tchou.

Description
Lulu, the protagonist, is a capricious, stubborn, narcissistic, bad little girl. She does as she pleases, ready for the worst horrors to satisfy her desires in all circumstances: Lulu at school, Lulu in Deauville, Lulu masseuse, Lulu in a nightclub, Lulu idol of young people, Lulu at the television, Lulu in summer camp or Lulu in love with a firefighter.

The book bears in the introduction the words: “Furthermore, any resemblance to persons who exist or who have existed is perfectly intentional. All these adventures were taken from real events."

Vilaine Lulu's daily life is made up of murders and rapes that she commits.

History
Lulu was born ten years earlier, when Yves Saint-Laurent worked at Christian Dior: “We were young, and we had a lot of fun, says the couturier. Often, after six o'clock, a Dior employee (Jean-Pierre Frère) would dress up. One night he had pulled his pants up to his knees. I remember he was wearing long black socks. In the models' cabin he had found a red tulle petticoat and a gondolier's hat. Very small, almost disturbing with his stubborn and cunning air, he had impressed me and I had said to him: "You are the Evil Lulu."

Although published much later, the work was written and drawn in the 1950s. Featuring masturbation, torture, paedophilia, murders and latent depression, the work caused a scandal.

The album La Vilaine Lulu was reissued in 2002 by Éditions Tchou, then in 2010 by Éditions de La Martinière.

Analysis
This work, presented as a scathing critique of contemporary society, depicts a large number of child abuse including abduction or human sacrifice\ritual murder, satanic rites including satanist ritualized sexual abuse and idealizes pedocriminality in sexual debauchery of children. There is a reference to Catharism and scenes of anti-Catholic violence.

In this comic strip, the sensitive Yves Saint Laurent, self-proclaimed masochist, passive systematic actor in his relationships, would take revenge with a dream life of a dominating, devious and vicious little girl who does as she pleases.

In addition, Betty Catroux was nicknamed by Yves Saint Laurent "the little Pulu".

With hindsight, some will see in this comic the sketches of very particular sexual parties that Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé would have organized with young teenagers. Although there is no legal evidence to establish this, hearsay accuses the couple of having used Moroccan pedophile networks.

Let's hope, for Vaccarello's sake, this doesn't see the light of day.

 

[Caffeine]

Here's the Wikipedia article. It's only available in French, so I translated it into English to the best of my capabilities underneath.

The Original:

Source: Wikipedia

My translation:

Let's hope, for Vaccarello's sake, this doesn't see the light of day.

This is different in that YS is not trying to sell it as a lifestyle to the masses.

 

[gallianostan]

With hindsight, some will see in this comic the sketches of very particular sexual parties that Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé would have organized with young teenagers. Although there is no legal evidence to establish this, hearsay accuses the couple of having used Moroccan pedophile networks.

burn the house down if this is true because... yikes. i've heard about this before and i really hope it isn't true.

 

[blueorchid]

Out of curiosity, I did read La Vilaine Lulu earlier this year and in it's own way it has some funny moments (the comic where Lulu wins the Nobel Prize made me laugh so hard, I'm sorry). I don't think it's as bad as the Wikipedia entry makes it out to be. But really... at least Balenciaga had nothing like this in his past that we know about, lol. Babydoll dresses, it is!

 

[Drusilla_]

Here's the Wikipedia article. It's only available in French, so I translated it into English to the best of my capabilities underneath.

The Original:

Source: Wikipedia

My translation:

Let's hope, for Vaccarello's sake, this doesn't see the light of day.

in fairness to Vaccarello, he's never referenced it or that era in any of his work (this is where Hedi's renaming of the house turns out to have an unexpected benefit) and Yves/Pierre are long dead and gone.

I do hope this doesn't affect the other Kering labels that haven't been doing this weird theme in their marketing. Alessandro is already out at Gucci and if the heat starts to come for Harry Styles, well, a rebrand on both brand and pop star is a predictable move. It would be especially cruel to come for McQueen considering the founder himself was a csa survivor and despite his long history of controversy on the runway, child abuse was one thing I've never seen the label invoke in any of its work or promotional material, during or after his time.

As for Demna, who knows? I think Kering might wait for Spring 2023 to hit stores to see whether the blowback continues, but I do expect he'll be gone, or 'taking a break' or something, within six months. Three if I had to bet.

 

[Drusilla_]

oh.. this would be a pr NIGHTMARE.

between lulu f*cking an old man and killing babies with red wine... i would fear for vaccarello's livelihood.

between this and potential outrage about babydoll dresses.... . (I doubt there'll be any about the latter though, they've been an adult women's lingerie category with that name in regular clothing stores for longer than our mothers - and some grandmothers - have been alive)

I mean, subverting the meaning of certain styles is a thing, e.g. Courtney Love and the 'kinderwhore' style she wore in the early 90s, she wasn't trying to look in any way childlike.

 

[gazebo]

If we’re going to get really crazy, how long until these loons realize that Saint Laurent is also owned by Kering and discover La Vilaine Lulu!

View attachment 1222494

biblio

Thuk you! Never heard of it.

wifflegif.com/

 

[gazebo]

Wait until they find out about Balenciaga's baby doll dresses.

Source: V&A website

youtube.com

 

[yslforever]

burn the house down if this is true because... yikes. i've heard about this before and i really hope it isn't true.

Not true at all, they were very much into macho hairy men with fully-grown masculine features, if you know what I mean. Just check the tons of erotic drawings by Yves. I know a few of the models for those drawings, they are still living and respectable granddads now but, then they were rugged and burly twenty-thirty years old gym rats or blue-collars workers, very eager to pose, or more.
The pedophiles rumours came from a couple of Pierre Bergé's arch-enemies, he was extremely divisive and often had the meanest words for the people he disliked, and knew how to make enemies (like jumping and beating André Courrèges in a board meeting of the FFM, or dissing Karl Lagerfeld permanently). Yves too was quite a b*tch sometimes.
As for the Vilaine Lulu, I agree she's a deranged naughty girl but for Yves it was practically a drunken game with his friends, always trying to invent new stories, each one worse than the latest.

 

[jeanclaude]

(like jumping and beating André Courrèges in a board meeting of the FFM

Pierre Bergé beated André Courrèges??? Please, tell me more about it!!

 

[LadyJunon]

(like jumping and beating André Courrèges in a board meeting of the FFM, or dissing Karl Lagerfeld permanently).

Pierre Bergé beated André Courrèges??? Please, tell me more about it!!

They must be turning in their graves, knowing that their companies are bound together under Groupe Artémis (Pinault).

 

[blueorchid]

They must be turning in their graves, knowing that their companies are bound together under Groupe Artémis (Pinault).

Well, speaking of La Vilaine Lulu...



pdfcoffee

 

[LiliVoguing]

That was out of this world

 

[Lola701]

Here's the Wikipedia article. It's only available in French, so I translated it into English to the best of my capabilities underneath.

The Original:

Source: Wikipedia

My translation:

Let's hope, for Vaccarello's sake, this doesn't see the light of day.

The person who wrote the wikipedia was on a mission!
I don’t know how they managed to make the correlation between Lulu and YSL’s alleged sexual life in Marrakech.
I think YSL’s taste in men was pretty well known and he did erotic male drawings (I think Prigent showed them in one of his documentary) totally detached from Lulu and which were quite representative of his fantasies.
But the problem will probably be for those brands to handle those kinds of things in the future…Because time has that thing of making allegations to be truths.

But beyond all of that I think those various contorversies regarding public figures either in fashion or in culture always question the notion of cancel culture in ways that it challenges the perspective of things. I love Chanel the brand the aesthetic and everything, I love the idea behind the story of Gabrielle as a woman who elevated herself socially and created an empire but I hate the woman and her POV on society. But then there’s always some nuance in those kind of stories…I mean she was known antisemitic but her brand was and is still owned by a Jewish family she tried to destroy. And in a way social media has that way of blurring lines because buying Chanel for example doesn’t mean supporting Chanel.

But then again my favorite designer is one controversial one. I loved his spirit and his work despite not being ok with all his statements…Which were sometimes contradictory to his own life.

I think that despite the Balenciaga campaign being twisted and weird, I think it needs to be handled with maybe less emotion and more pragmatism…Something that is impossible on social media. Because emotion leads to pairing actions to people’s personal lives based on a campaign and it also leads to conspiracy theory.
And I must say that I’m always uncomfortable to the kinda undertone homophobia those conspiracies leads to when associated to the fashion community.

 

[yslforever]

Pierre Bergé beated André Courrèges??? Please, tell me more about it!!

Yes, in 75 or 76, in a meeting of the Fédération to allocate the spots of the Paris Fashion week; everyone was in the room, all the designers or their CEO, and arguing to get the best spot. PB was a tyrant and had a heated argument with André Courrèges, then they had words and finally PB rose from his chair and jump on André Courrèges, punching him on his chair and then tackling him on the floor. Everyone was silent and terrified but finally some intervened to separate them. André Courrèges left immediately. Nobody said a single word, and PB got what he wanted: he decided for every other houses.
The fun fact is that André Courrèges was a former rugby player, the tallest and strongest of them all, while PB was quite short and stocky. He became the king-tyrant of the Fédération that day for many years to come.

 

[LadyJunon]

Well, speaking of La Vilaine Lulu...

View attachment 1222800

pdfcoffee

The shameless advertising though. I'm sure Di Felice and Vaccarello have actually sent something like that down their respective brand's runways.

The person who wrote the wikipedia was on a mission!
I don’t know how they managed to make the correlation between Lulu and YSL’s alleged sexual life in Marrakech.
I think YSL’s taste in men was pretty well known and he did erotic male drawings (I think Prigent showed them in one of his documentary) totally detached from Lulu and which were quite representative of his fantasies.
But the problem will probably be for those brands to handle those kinds of things in the future…Because time has that thing of making allegations to be truths.

But beyond all of that I think those various contorversies regarding public figures either in fashion or in culture always question the notion of cancel culture in ways that it challenges the perspective of things. I love Chanel the brand the aesthetic and everything, I love the idea behind the story of Gabrielle as a woman who elevated herself socially and created an empire but I hate the woman and her POV on society. But then there’s always some nuance in those kind of stories…I mean she was known antisemitic but her brand was and is still owned by a Jewish family she tried to destroy. And in a way social media has that way of blurring lines because buying Chanel for example doesn’t mean supporting Chanel.

But then again my favorite designer is one controversial one. I loved his spirit and his work despite not being ok with all his statements…Which were sometimes contradictory to his own life.

I think that despite the Balenciaga campaign being twisted and weird, I think it needs to be handled with maybe less emotion and more pragmatism…Something that is impossible on social media. Because emotion leads to pairing actions to people’s personal lives based on a campaign and it also leads to conspiracy theory.
And I must say that I’m always uncomfortable to the kinda undertone homophobia those conspiracies leads to when associated to the fashion community.

I think that it's quite obvious that Lulu was a twisted joke and nothing more. YSL seemed to be (as) open (as you could be in those times) with his homosexuality.

Well I never really liked Chanel (the clothing or the woman), I sure that lots of my favourite designers (living and dead, modern and "vintage") have views I don't agree with.

Chances are if I could ever meet Balenciaga or Schiaparelli, they'd most likely refer to me by a racial slur simply because it was normal in those times. I love Alexander McQueen's work, but I'm sure that I wouldn't be able to stay in the same room as him for more than five minutes (such a brutal, angry man, my mental health couldn't). I'd love to meet Ghesquiére and Theyskens though and learn how to create real pure-blooded fashion from them one day, but there's still a slight fear of their true opinions.

I think that the main reason for why people feel so "qualified" to criticize the fashion industry is because, like most creative industries, high fashion appears secretive and aloof to the average outsider. To add to that, high fashion also has a high concentration of traditionally counter-cultural elements: the presence of homosexuality (the industry is dominated by gay men), gyno-centrism (the industry serves the needs and desires of women first and foremost), unconventional output (fashion is constantly ahead of the "norm"), disinterest in the ordinary person.

Even the runway model archetype is counter-cultural, being tall (visually dominating), angular (traditionally masculine) and willowy (unaccommodating for curves) with a cold expression (visually agressive), which goes starkly against the idea of women being submissive, soft, nurturing, inviting beings.

This idea of counter-culture goes against the societal norm, the cultural norm, which upsets traditionalists who feels threatened by having their views challenged. This eventually becomes the breeding ground for conspiracists who overanalyse every aspect of that counter-culture, in hopes of seeing a crack to split the whole thing open, be it justified or not. Balenciaga's latest campaign was that crack.

 

[donyan]

The person who wrote the wikipedia was on a mission!
I don’t know how they managed to make the correlation between Lulu and YSL’s alleged sexual life in Marrakech.
I think YSL’s taste in men was pretty well known and he did erotic male drawings (I think Prigent showed them in one of his documentary) totally detached from Lulu and which were quite representative of his fantasies.
But the problem will probably be for those brands to handle those kinds of things in the future…Because time has that thing of making allegations to be truths.

But beyond all of that I think those various contorversies regarding public figures either in fashion or in culture always question the notion of cancel culture in ways that it challenges the perspective of things. I love Chanel the brand the aesthetic and everything, I love the idea behind the story of Gabrielle as a woman who elevated herself socially and created an empire but I hate the woman and her POV on society. But then there’s always some nuance in those kind of stories…I mean she was known antisemitic but her brand was and is still owned by a Jewish family she tried to destroy. And in a way social media has that way of blurring lines because buying Chanel for example doesn’t mean supporting Chanel.

But then again my favorite designer is one controversial one. I loved his spirit and his work despite not being ok with all his statements…Which were sometimes contradictory to his own life.

I think that despite the Balenciaga campaign being twisted and weird, I think it needs to be handled with maybe less emotion and more pragmatism…Something that is impossible on social media. Because emotion leads to pairing actions to people’s personal lives based on a campaign and it also leads to conspiracy theory.
And I must say that I’m always uncomfortable to the kinda undertone homophobia those conspiracies leads to when associated to the fashion community.

WORD