Teresa Giudice Explains Her Balenciaga Sweater Amid Label’s Scandal

Teresa Giudice wants fans to know that she didn’t wear Balenciaga with malicious intent.

While on vacation with husband Luis “Louie” Ruelas, the star posed in a sweater prominently featuring the brand’s logo — at the same time that Balenciaga was receiving backlash for its controversial ad campaigns, which critics said featured children in a sexualized manner. Social media users criticized Giudice for promoting Balenciaga amid the scandal, and now, she’s responding to their feedback.

“I was embarrassed,” admitted Giudice (who is a mom to four daughters (Gia, 21, Gabriella, 18, Milania, 16, and Audriana, 13) on Wednesday’s episode of the “Namaste B$tches” podcast.

In a now-deleted Instagram post originally shared by Ruelas, Giudice, 50, was photographed in a cream-colored sweater covered in Balenciaga’s logo, blowing a kiss to the camera with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Giudice admitted that she “did not know” of the brand’s controversy, which began in mid-November.

She further explained that she and Ruelas were “check[ed] out of social media completely” while on their romantic getaway, which is why she missed the news.

“I brought a sweater — I totally forgot I had it from last year, I never wore it — and I brought it because I heard it was chilly there in Paris, and it was a great sweater to wear during the day,” she said.

After sharing the photo, Ruelas noticed the negative comments and deleted the post once he investigated.

“I had no idea, but I guess Luis looked more into it, and then he took it down,” Giudice said. “He didn’t feel comfortable with it being up.”

Despite Ruelas removing the post, social media users continued to make comments on their other posts regarding the couple’s supposed support for the controversial brand.

Jeremy Moeller/Getty

On Nov. 16, Balenciaga released its holiday ad, which featured photos of children holding handbags that looked like teddy bears wearing leather harnesses and spiked collars. Wine glasses and dog bowls were visible in some of the shots.

Only a few days later on Nov. 21, Balenciaga released its star-studded Garde-Robe campaign — completely separate from its holiday campaign, promoting the Spring/Summer 2023 collection — which included a photo with a page from a Supreme Court ruling of United States v. Williams in the background. That ruling deemed the promotion of child pornography illegal and not protected under freedom of speech.

After nearly two weeks of controversy (which included celebrities trashing and burning their Balenciaga items and brand favorite Kim Kardashian speaking out), Balenciaga’s creative director Demna Gvasalia issued an apology on Instagram, writing, “I want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility. It was inappropriate to have kids promote objects that had nothing to do with them,”

He continued: “As much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn. Period.”

Acknowledging that he shall “learn from this, listen and engage with child protection organizations” in order to “help on this terrible subject,” he assured that “adequate measures will be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the future but also to take accountability in protecting child welfare in every way we can.”