Gucci and Harry Styles slammed for toddler bed ad after Balenciaga scandal

Gucci and Harry Styles have been slammed for an ad campaign in which Styles poses in a teddy-bear t-shirt next to a toddler bed, just a few weeks after its sister brand Balenciaga was embroiled in a child imagery scandal. 

Styles appears in the new 'HA HA HA' Gucci campaign in an array of outfits and with different props. The images were released on November 2, several weeks before the Balenciaga scandal erupted.

One shows Styles standing in front of a toddler mattress leaning against a wall, and in others he is seen caressing and carrying it. In others and in an accompanying video, he is seen dressing and undressing. 

The campaign was conceptualized by former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who has since left the brand. Christopher Simmonds was in charge of art direction and Mark Borthwick was the photographer.  

In the wake of the Balenciaga scandal - which saw the brand using children to advertise bondage-themed bears and child porn legal documents as props - the images have caused fresh controversy. 

Styles appears in the new 'HA HA HA' Gucci campaign in an array of outfits and with different props, including this toddler mattress. The images were released on November 2, several weeks before the Balenciaga scandal erupted 

Styles with the toddler mattress in another set of images from the ad campaign shot earlier this year

Alexandra Zarini, whose great grandfather founded Gucci, was among those to criticize the brand for the ad campaign

Backlash: Critics asked why Gucci felt the need to include a toddler bed and bear shirt in the collection 

Gucci and Balenciaga are owned by the Kering group - a French powerhouse fashion conglomerate run by Francois-Henri Pinault. 

In unveiling the images in November, Gucci called it a 'performance piece' by Styles. 

'Play is at the very heart of the Gucci HA HA HA collection...its name after all is the onomatopoeic sound of the written essence of the ‘laughing face’ emoji, as well as the serial crasis of the initials of ‘Harry’ and ‘Alessandro.’

'Starting from those small oddities that come together in childlike visions, it turns into a ‘dream wardrobe’ reflecting the two creative spirits behind the collection.'

'Harry Styles enacts a theatrical piece where classicism meets play, transforming the wardrobe into a liberated platform where the masculine can embrace vanity,' the brand said of it. 

The $750 bear shirt modeled by Styles is still for sale on Gucci's website 

In a description of the collection and ad campaign, Gucci said Styles and Michele channeled  their 'child like visions'. 'Play is at the heart' of the imagery, the brand said

The Kering group is run by CEO Francois-Henri Pinault, pictured above with his wife Salma Hayek

Among those who have criticized the ad campaign featuring Styles is Alexandra Zarini, whose great-grandfather founded the Gucci brand. 

'Why would you create a “performance piece” with a toddler’s mattress and an adult man? My concerns are that there seems to be a common ideology across Kering’s Fashion Houses,' she said. 

Zarini runs The Alexandra Gucci Children's Foundation, which combats child sexual abuse. 

She previously revealed to DailyMail.com how Kering and Gucci turned down a partnership offer to work against child sexual abuse and exploitation in the industry. 

Neither Gucci nor Kering has commented on criticism of the Harry Styles campaign. 

The campaign was conceptualized by former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele (right) who has since left the brand

In an article to celebrate the collection's launch in November, the pair told GQ how they were inspired by 'eccentric men from the 70s'. 

'We were sharing for a long time images of eccentric men from the era. 

'And so we went really close to the things that are very difficult to find in vintage, or things that apparently belong to an era that, in a way, doesn’t exist anymore,' Michele said.  

THE BALENCIAGA SCANDAL: BONDAGE BEARS, CHILD PORN DOCS AND AN ARTIST KNOWN FOR DEPICTING NAKED KIDS

The Bondage Bears Christmas campaign 

The scandal erupted when Balenciaga released its 2022 Holiday ad campaign that featured children posing with its Plush Toy Bag. The bags look like teddy bears and are dressed in BDSM gear. 

In the photo shoot, the kids also appeared surrounded by empty wine and champagne glasses. 

The distinctly adult themes immediately troubled many who asked why children had ever been used. 

Balenciaga ignored the scandal at first and seemingly allowed the photographer who was involved, Gabriele Galimberti, to take the heat. 

He released a statement saying he had no control over the content of the shoot and eventually, Balenciaga released its own statement agreeing with him and taking responsibility for the campaign. 

It has now been pulled from the internet. 

The hidden child porn documents 

After the BDSM bears fiasco, eagle-eyed critics started examining the rest of Balenciaga's campaigns closely. 

They soon discovered that in the background of an image from the Spring '23 campaign was a printout of a Supreme Court ruling on whether or not internet child porn can be legally considered free speech. 

 

On the back of the bears scandal, many critics said it pointed to a troubling pattern within Balenciaga. 

Balenciaga was quick to blame North Six, a production company that helped arrange the shoot, for the inclusion of those documents. 

They claimed that they entrusted all of the props from the photoshoot to North Six, and that their team was assured everything that was included was fake. 

The troubling book of artist whose work depicts naked, castrated toddlers 

Balenciaga is yet to answer for the inclusion of a book by Michael Borremans in the background of two of the images from the Spring '23 campaign. 

Borremans is a Belgian painter whose work includes a troubling 2017 series called Fire From The Sun. 

It depicts naked toddlers - some of them castrated - playing in a group and at times alone. 

Lawyers for the brand are yet to address DailyMail.com's questions about how the book ended up on the photoshoot.  

In this image from Balenciaga's scrapped Spring '23 campaign, Isabelle Huppert sits in front of a stack of books including one that celebrates Michael Borremans, a Belgian painter whose work is known to include depictions of castrated toddlers

Borremans' other work includes his 2017 series Fire From The Sun, which features castrated toddlers and babies holding what look like severed limbs, while playing together nude in a large group