Saint Laurent Asked To Modify Ads

Saint Laurent has been asked by France's advertising watchdog, the Autorite de Regulation Professionnelle de la Publicite (ARPP), to modify two of its new advertisements after it received 50 complaints calling the ads "degrading to women."

The images are from the spring/summer 2017 campaign for the house, which is currently under Anthony Vaccarello's creative direction. The two pictures show one of a woman wearing stiletto roller skates bending over a stool, and another of a woman wearing fishnet tights with her legs spread towards the camera. Twitter users were quick to raise their concerns with the label on the social-media platform, although the house has not tweeted since March 3rd.

"We asked the brand and the ad displayer to make changes to these visuals as soon as possible," Stephane Martin, head of the ARPP, said, although the requested modifications are not known at this point. He added that the advertisements were in breach of the rules outlined by its agency which are in place to preserve the "dignity and respect in the representation of the person".

Saint Laurent did not immediately respond to requests for comment when contacted last night, while its owner Kering told us that they would not be directly making a statement on the matter. On Friday, an independent ethics committee associated with the ARPP will decide if there are grounds for the complaints and, if so, is entitled to ask the brand to withdraw the advertisements.