On October 2nd, 2022, Kakha Kaladze, the mayor of Tbilisi, awarded Balenciaga’s creative director Demna Gvasalia with the title of honorary citizen of Tbilisi. The event boosted posts directed against Gvasalia on Georgian social media. On October 26th, a Facebook user published a photo of the cover of Elle magazine, which, according to the post’s author, shows a pregnant Demna Gvasalia.
An altered photo of the ELLE magazine cover is being circulated on social networks to discredit Demna Gvasalia. The original cover of the magazine, in fact, featured Jessica Simpson. The campaign to discredit Gvasalia on the grounds of homophobia is linked to naming the designer as an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.
American singer and actress Jessica Simpson is featured on the cover of Elle magazine’s April 2012 issue. In the altered version of the photo, Simpson was replaced with Demna Gvasalia’s face.
This is not the first time that posts directed against Balenciaga’s creative director have circulated on social media. The naming of Gvasalia as one of the honorary citizens of Tbilisi was met with displeasure in the society on homophobic grounds. In October, Facebook users, including anti-vaxxers, anti-liberals and the clergy, posted homophobic and abusive posts against Gvasalia. For instance, the homophobic and anti-Western movement “Georgian Idea” and its affiliate page (zneoba.ge), as well as religious (“You are great, Lord”) and “Conservative Movement” pages spread the statement of deacon Basili Yashaghashvili, in which he calls Gvasalia a “proclaimed bigot” and due to granting him the title of honorary citizen of Tbilisi, he questions the status of the members of the Georgian government as Christians.
Also, several anti-vaxx and pro-Russian Facebook accounts (1, 2) published a photo of Demna Gvasalia crossed out in red with the inscription “Demna NOT MY Honorable Citizen!”
In addition, on October 4th, shortly after Demna Gvasalia became an honorary citizen, a conspiracy was spread on Facebook regarding the Balenciaga show at Paris Fashion Week. A social network user linked the display to Graphene Oxide.
For more disinformation disseminated about the creative director of Balenciaga, see the “Myth Detector” article:
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