Controversy Over French Luxury Brand 'Tawolseukeoteu'
IKEA Parody... Price Gap Over 115 Times
The French luxury brand 'Balenciaga' sparked controversy by unveiling a 'towel skirt' priced over 1 million KRW as a new item for 2024, and Swedish furniture company IKEA fired back by posting a parody video.
Earlier on the 15th (local time), Balenciaga released a towel skirt for both men and women as part of its spring collection for next year. The design resembles a common towel wrapped around the waist and is sold on the official website for 1.15 million KRW.
However, netizens' reactions to this product were not favorable. Sharp comments such as "Selling a towel for 1.15 million KRW?", "Who would buy this?", and "This is just too much" were made.
Meanwhile, Swedish furniture brand IKEA attracted attention by posting an image parodying Balenciaga's towel skirt. IKEA UK's official Instagram posted a photo with the caption, "New boring towel skirt, a must-have fashion item for spring 2024."
In the photo, an IKEA employee wears a black hoodie and beige pants with a towel wrapped around the waist. The overall outfit perfectly mimics the look of Balenciaga's towel skirt model, but the difference lies in the price. While Balenciaga's towel skirt costs 1.15 million KRW per piece, IKEA's bath towel is sold for 9,900 KRW.
Netizens praised IKEA's witty parody with comments like "It's 100 times cheaper," "Brilliant," and "Even if I can't buy Balenciaga's new item, I can buy IKEA's."
Meanwhile, IKEA has previously parodied Balenciaga's fashion products. In 2017, when Balenciaga introduced a luxury shopper bag made of lambskin and calfskin priced around 2 million KRW, IKEA posted a photo of a shopping bag priced around 1,000 KRW.
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