Review of Balenciaga Holiday 2025 Ad Campaign with Photographer Marie Valognes
Balenciaga closes the year with a wink—quite literally—in a gifting campaign that turns the humble hand into a stage for holiday theatrics. Photographed by Marie Valognes, the images spotlight the brand’s key accessories through elaborately manicured fingers, each nail a tiny world of gloss, glitter, and surreal ornamentation. It’s a clever conceit: if the holiday season is all about touch and exchange, Balenciaga makes the hands themselves the protagonists. Consider it the brand’s most literal take yet on “handpicked signatures”—and a playful reminder that gifting begins long before the unwrapping.
The visuals strike a fun tension between the ornate and the minimal. Holiday nail art—mini purses for fingertips, evergreen trees curling across nail beds, 3D silver ribbons catching light—acts as both prop and punctuation. Against these decorative crescendos, the brand’s accessories stand calmly assured: the Rodeo Bag in smooth calfskin and strass, the glassy polish of an Avenue Pump, or the soft, grained tactility of a Le City Bag rendered in arena lamb or waxed suede. The hands gesture and point, almost theatrical, drawing attention to hardware details like the B-monogram on a Venom City boot. It’s fashion rendered as choreography, each finger a director’s cue.
Balenciaga’s knack for injecting humor into luxury comes through most clearly in the charms and small objects scattered throughout. Miniature Alaska boots, a crystal-wrapped bow, an Eiffel Tower trinket, a hotel key tassel, Balenciaga Beads—each feels like a collected treasure from a stylish traveler’s pockets. Their presence reinforces the idea of personalization as luxury’s new love language, an ethos extended through accessories like Opera gloves, silver combs, passport wallets, etched tumblers, and the house’s new fragrances. These items function like punctuation marks around the hero products, creating a narrative of gifting that feels eclectic yet intentional.
If there’s an opportunity here, it lies in expanding the emotional arc beyond cleverness. The campaign’s strength—its smart visual contrasts and nimble humor—could be deepened with a touch more sentiment or human presence. Balenciaga’s world often thrives on a cool remove, and while the disembodied hands are stylistically sharp, the imagery stops just short of the warmth that holiday storytelling invites. Even a hint of interaction—hands meeting, passing, exchanging—might have expanded the campaign’s resonance without diluting its refined wit.
Still, Balenciaga embraces the season with refreshing restraint, channeling novelty without slipping into kitsch. Valognes’ lens captures a series of elegantly odd vignettes, guided by a brand unafraid to turn its own codes inside out. It’s a holiday tableau that understands the power of gesture—how a single finger can point, present, or promise. And if those gestures feel a touch mischievous, that’s entirely the point: after all, what’s gifting without a little sleight of hand?
Creative Director | Demna
Photographer | Marie Valognes