Ikea must have had a sense of déjà vu when they saw Balenciaga’s SS17 men’s collection, when a bag bearing a striking resemblance to their infamous big, blue Frakta sashayed down the catwalk. They responded yesterday in their own tongue-in-cheek way, with an advert on how to identify an original from the ‘copy’. The biggest telltale is their wildly different prices, a reasonable £2.50 for the Scandinavian homeware retailer’s versus £1,365 for the fashion version.
The advert was the brainchild of Swedish agency Acne – creative director Johan Holmgren told AdFreak that the idea had to be turned around quickly once they saw the product online. “We shot the bag with that same feeling and lighting as the Balenciaga bag. That same day, we sent the finished work to all markets.” Ikea, also seeing the humour of the situation, said, “We are deeply flattered that the Balenciaga tote bag resembles the IKEA iconic sustainable blue bag for 99 cents. Nothing beats the versatility of a great big blue bag!”
It isn’t the first time creative director Demna Gvasalia has reappropriated the banal, putting a DHL logo on a t-shirt for Vetements and more recently taking inspiration from Bernie Sanders’ campaign logo in the last men’s collection for Balenciaga.
So, which one will you be picking up?
