Balenciaga Calls The Paparazzi On The Supermodels
In an ode to pap shots from the early 2000s, Balenciaga’s Le City Paparazzi campaign snaps Claudia Schiffer, Tyra Banks, Lucy Liu, and more.
In an ode to pap shots from the early 2000s, Balenciaga’s Le City Paparazzi campaign snaps Claudia Schiffer, Tyra Banks, Lucy Liu, and more.
Why are ew obsessed with paparazzi? The sleaziest of photographers, who profit from stalking Hollywood’s elite, have long been a contentious issue in celebrity culture, leading to court case after court case in A-listers’ bids for privacy. Yet, our fascination with the heyday of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton—captured doing the simplest of tasks, from grabbing a Starbucks to filling up their Bentleys and Ferraris—remains undiminished. Now, Balenciaga is the latest to appropriate the aesthetic.
Playing with the Mandela effect, Demna blurs reality in Balenciaga’s latest Le City Paparazzi campaign. Digitally altering existing paparazzi shots, the campaign reimagines supermodels like Alek Wek, Amber Valletta, Claudia Schiffer and Tyra Banks—alongside Lucy Liu and Paris Hilton—carrying the maison’s Le City bag. Our collective memory of early 2000s iconography is skewed, with Hilton—hot pink Motorola RAZR in hand—seemingly always having the Le City slung over her shoulder.
A watermark inspired by stock photo websites underlines the concept of paparazzi imagery, reimagining how style icons have worn the Le City bag in their daily looks over the years. The campaign evokes the era’s spirit while reaffirming the line’s timelessness, paying homage to the Le City bag’s enduring cultural impact.
By distorting nostalgia and reconstructing the past through a contemporary lens, Balenciaga taps into our obsession with both the chaos and glamour of Y2K celebrity culture—reminding us that, in fashion, memory is as much about reinvention as it is about preservation.