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A woman has boldly destroyed and thrown out thousands of pounds worth of Balenciaga clothes in an effort to hit back at the designer brand for its controversial ad campaign involving children.
Chloe Hennessey, 27, decided to film herself cutting up a £600 Balenciaga hoodie and binning a t-shirt, pair of sunglasses, and pair of trainers from the luxury fashion house.
Chloe, an aesthetic practitioner from east London, says she was horrified when she saw Balenciaga's most recent ad campaigns.
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One included children holding teddy bear purses that looked like they were wearing bondage accessories.
Another one featured paperwork about a Supreme Court ruling on child sex images.
Chloe learned about the campaign through TikTok, after she was inundated with negative comments when she posted a video of herself wearing a pair of Balenciaga glasses.
After she read up on the controversy, Chloe decided to destroy and bin all of her Balenciaga branded clothes and accessories, promising to never shop with them again.
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Chloe said: "I actually love Balenciaga. They used to be my favourite brand.
"I had been home with my son as he's been sick, so I didn't know what was going on, when I posted the video.
"After I started investigation my whole TikTok was flooded with videos about what happened. I felt sick to my stomach."
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Chloe continued: "People have asked why I didn't just donate my stuff, but if I did someone else would be wearing it and promoting them.
"Obviously I'm not rich, so it was annoying to have to get rid of all of it, but taking a stand is so much more important in my opinion."
Chloe is part of a larger movement of TikTok users who are calling out the brand for what they see as the sexualisation of children.
Balenciaga has since apologised for both ads and removed them from its social media.
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"We would like to address the controversies surrounding our recent ad campaigns. We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intent to include it in our narrative," its statement read.
"The two separate ad campaigns in question reflect a series of grievous errors for which Balenciaga takes responsibility."
It continued: "Our plush bear bags and the gift collection should have not been featured with children.
"This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images."
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The fashion house has also filed a lawsuit against production company North Six, for its role in creating one of the ads.
Ali Condon