EXCLUSIVE: Pierpaolo Piccioli Unveils His First Balenciaga Campaign

BEDDING DOWN: Less than three weeks after parading his debut collection for Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli has also created his first campaign, suggesting a more relaxed, warmer image than during the Demna days — while also showcasing two key handbags created before him.

Photographer David Sims, a frequent collaborator of Piccioli, shot the campaign at Hôtel de Maisons, the Left Bank mansion the late Karl Lagerfeld once called home, focusing his lens on Mona Tougaard and Sandra Murray.

In one sunlit image, a barefoot Tougaard reclines on a messy bed wearing one of the crop tops and loose Bermuda shorts from the spring 2026 collection paraded earlier this month. Next to her rests a Rodeo bag, a style from Piccioli’s predecessor Demna, here shown dangling an array of charms and the model’s first initial.

Le City bag, introduced in 2001 by Balenciaga’s then creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, is also featured in the campaign, giving yet another life to this enduring “It” accessory.

Piccioli said he wanted to “create something that felt truly personal and could tell a story of effortless beauty and delicate humanity.”

He said Sims “captured Mona and Sandra as they are — spontaneous, real, soft, yet strong — a reflection of the new Balenciaga woman and the beginning of a chapter that feels deeply meaningful to me.”

“Set against the 18th-century grandeur of Grand Siècle architecture, these moments of natural repose redefine what strength looks like today,” the house added in a statement shared first with WWD. “The campaign captures an organic tension between youth and austerity, sophistication and spontaneity — a luminous portrait of Piccioli’s belief in beauty as emotion.”

The campaign is to roll out Tuesday on Balenciaga’s digital channels.

Piccioli, who spent most of his career at Valentino, made it clear he would not erase the designers who came before him, and especially founder Cristóbal Balenciaga, whose sack dresses and balloon skirts he gave a fresh spin.

“Yet the inimitable handwriting of Piccioli — his graceful, sculptural silhouettes, his opulent use of color, his romanticism — shone through, thrusting Balenciaga in an exciting new direction,” WWD opined after the show.