About

Balenciaga AI Videos and Memes by Balenciaga refer to AI-generated videos in which characters from popular franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel Comics are imagined as models for the French luxury house Balenciaga. Started by a Harry Potter video, the trend went viral on YouTube in late March 2023.

Origin

On March 15th, 2023, YouTuber^[1] demonflyingfox uploaded an AI-generated video titled "Harry Potter by Balenciaga." The video, set to the song "Lightvessel" by Thip Trong, imagined Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Hagrid and other characters from the Harry Potter universe as fashion models for the French fashion house Balenciaga. The video included iconic lines from Harry Potter movies altered to reference Balenciaga, also AI-generated. The video (shown below) accumulated over 3.6 million views in three weeks.

You're Balenciaga, Harry.

Spread

In the following weeks, the video received viral spread online through reposts on Twitter and other sites. For example, on March 23rd, 2023, Twitter^[2] user @grozyan reposted the clip, with the post gaining over 840 retweets and 4,800 likes in 10 days. On March 28th, Twitter^[3] user @heyBarsee made a repost that garnered over 270,000 views in one week.

The viral spread of the video inspired more similar AI-generated works that imagined characters from various franchises as Balenciaga models. On March 31st, 2023, the YouTube^[4] channel Art Beyond Reality posted the earliest such edit, a Lord of the Rings version, which gained over 71,000 views in four days (shown below).

Later on March 31st, the YouTube^[5] channel I Create a Thing posted an Avengers version that gained over 172,000 views in four days (shown below, left). Also that day, the YouTube^[6] channel Abandoned Films posted a Star Wars version that received over 456,000 views in that same period (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References