What are we seeing here? Balenciaga goes all paparazzi with their new SS18 campaign

Written by Hannah Corkhill 

Although we are stull deep in winter, summer is on the horizon. With multiple fashion houses releasing their SS18 campaigns, this week we have been treated. Kicking off with Yeezys, which pieced a pap theme unveiling its Kim Kardashian clones (including Paris Hilton) for their Sixth Season. This campaign is incredible and has had so much press, another genius move from Kanye.

The second treat of the week came from Balenciaga who also donned a paparazzi theme (we spot a running trend) and saw models including Stella Tennant, Dipti Sharma, Kennah Lau, Marjitta Nissinen, Eliza Douglas, Christine Willis, Alek Wek, Raphaele Godin and her son pose exactly how any celebrity does in a crowd of paparazzi. Pacing along Avenue Montaigne and Rue Saint Honore, head to toe in Balenciaga and all accompanied by extremely dashing bodyguards.

The campaign was shot by the French equivalent of Getty, Agerce Bestimage and was styled by the brilliant Lotta Volzova (a frequent Gvasatia collaborator) and features spike point toe heeled pumps, floral boots, plenty of check and the odd kick out at a camera.

It’s only fair to raise a discussion that with this popular trend of paparazzi inspired campaign, and with so many stunning and creative Balenciaga campaigns behind us, is the quality of this one a little, well, off?

A scroll through twitter brings mixed opinions on this shoot and Yeezys but also sees people living for the campaign too and saying that “pap photos are a thing of the moment”. Personally, I think the concept is different and shows the clothes in an unusual but flattering way to any other campaign has, but then on the other hand, is this really a “shoot”. We see paparazzi pictures of models and IT girls and celebrities wearing designer every day, on social media, in the papers and after much anticipation for these new SS18 campaigns from houses such as Balenciaga, is this a let-down? Or could this campaign be lost amongst the crowd and any regular paparazzi pic?

There is also the controversial fact that we see day to day of celebs screaming and shouting at paparazzi and putting those in the spotlight in some dangerous and volatile situations, so is it a wise decision to highlight this for a campaign which is highly publicised and put in the spotlight as well as being deemed as “cool”?

But there again, it is a stunning shoot with plenty of colour and so much creativity.

Let us know your thoughts on out twitter @HUMBLEmag