The campaign photos of Balenciaga in the latest season were posted on the Instagram. The theme of the shoot talks about female celebrities being spot by paparazzi.
The guardian of the celebrity is a male, with all-black suits. The language of his dressing shows authentic and masculinity. “We might say that blackness helped simultaneously and ambiguously to mark, unmark, and remark hegemonic masculinity.” (Kaiser 2012, 136) In the picture, the man is not highlighted, but the gesture and the darkness of the suit brings the audience a sense of protection, dominant, and power. The idea of mens suits shifts not much throughout decades. The shape remains its essence of expression of gender. Nowadays, the womenswear has intersected with the menswear. Women wearing suits are common these days. The woman shows on the image has short haircut, clean outfit with bright red spiky high heels. The personal image was not emphasizing the female gender but more neutral.
However, the story behind the photo tries to present female celebrity being followed by paparazzi. The idea of exposure of privacy was put on the female figures in this Balenciaga campaign. Though I think of the concept of this campaign wasn’t meant to emphasis the gender issue, the cliché idea of men protecting women was well established. The level of power distinguished between the genders is partially true, but worthy to discuss over it.
