Balenciaga Honors China's Qixi Festival With Its Latest Campaign
Decking Engineered Arts Limited robots in the limited-edition region-exclusive collection.
Balenciaga has made a name for itself with its campaigns, tapping into celebrity culture with the likes of Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian acting as leading parts, or seeing its models become CGI renderings for Spring/Summer 2022. Now, Demna looks to the Chinese market with the house’s latest campaign, enlisting the photographer Andrea Artemisio to create a shoot centered around robots.
Specifically, the campaign honors the Chinese Qixi Festival, which falls on August 4 to celebrate the “annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in mythology.” Using robots produced by Engineered Arts Limited, Balenciaga veers on the edge of the uncanny valley by serving full house-designed looks on robots that cross the line between the artificial and reality. Products such as the Balenciaga Hourglass bag appear in extra small black diamonte-covered takes, as well as a gray shearling iteration which is something new for the house.
Elsewhere, we find normcore tropes with robots wearing a clean black outfit shrouded by an oversized striped shirt, the now-signature Runner Sneaker, plenty of baggy silhouettes and a variety of graphic pieces, notably the Qixi Crest adorning caps and T-shirts.
Take a look at the Balenciaga Qixi Festival Special Series campaign above. All of the products are available to buy on Balenciaga’s regional website and in its boutiques.
In related news, Balenciaga has just dropped its all-new Tourist Sandal.
