Balenciaga Back in Red Carpet Spotlight With Michelle Yeoh, Salma Hayek – The Hollywood Reporter

Is Balenciaga back?

The luxury fashion house notched another high-profile mark on its comeback by dressing a slew of stars on its home turf in France during the recent Cannes Film Festival including Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh. The Everything Everywhere All at Once star wore not one but two Balenciaga Couture looks on May 21, first on the Palais red carpet and later that night to accept top honors at the Women in Motion Awards, an exclusive festival event sponsored by the house’s parent company Kering.

Also at the exclusive event, Salma Hayek-Pinault (married to Kering boss Francois-Henri Pinault) wore Balenciaga as did her husband in what proved to be a strong signal of support for the brand during a glamorous event, which is an official collaboration with the festival. The Cannes showings, which followed a March 5 runway show during Paris Fashion Week, also included Balenciaga ensembles on Naomi Campbell, Anok Yai, Alton Mason, Renata Litvinova, Roh Yunseo, Turbo Liu, Vittoria Cerett and Helena Christensen. Isabelle Huppert, an ambassador for the house, also wore two Balenciaga looks on May 21, including one for the Kering dinner as well.

“Michelle never would’ve done that during awards season,” hissed one fashion insider, referencing the potential image blowback of wearing Balenciaga so closely after the house fell into controversy last November after debuting campaigns that featured children as subjects holding teddy bear handbags in BDSM-inspired gear and including prop documents revealing a lawsuit related to child pornography. The Hollywood Reporter reached out to a rep for Yeoh but did not hear back as of press time.

Demna, Balenciaga’s creative director, later apologized. “This was an error of judgment. I regret this a lot. We learned from this now and there are going to be closer and more attentive checks and validation steps applied before any image goes out. For this I want to say I am sorry,” he told Vogue in February. “I sincerely apologize for what happened and to anyone who has been hurt by it.”

See some of the Balenciaga looks below.

This story first appeared in the June 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.