Kristen Stewart for Florabotanica Ad Campaign

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Kristen Stewart is the new face of Balenciaga’s newest fragrance, Florabotanica. Here’s the first ad shot by Steven Meisel.

Kristen Stewart said to WWD she was relieved the first time she smelled Florabotanica.

On the fragrance: “There is something natural about it,” explained Stewart. “It’s very alive. I think that as a young person wearing it — considering that I’ve never worn a scent — it kind of puts you on this level of, like, ‘Whoa, check me out.’ ”

On the way she’s posing: “I think that’s kind of perfect for this particular ad. Usually, a fragrance ad would definitely be like,” said Stewart, striking an exaggerated, sexy lounge pose on the couch. “When I first stood there, I was like, ‘OK, do you want me to show the curves of the dress? Do you want me to stand like this? Like that?’ And they were like, ‘Just be comfortable.’ ”

Balenciaga Spring 2008 Collection

[Photo Credit: Steven Meisel for balenciaga.com via thefashionspot.com, vogue.com]

  • Olive Tree

    She speaks like a tweet.

    • http://gabyrippling.tumblr.com/ Gabriella M

      She talks like a young person.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=751285857 Sally Brownson

        Yeah, I didn’t think there was anything strange about her sound bite except that it sounded a lot like most of my friends at college…

      • Arellys Victor Garro

        how sad

        • http://gabyrippling.tumblr.com/ Gabriella M

          God forbid she go through normal life stages? Them whippersnappers today and their damn colloquialisms.

      • http://twitter.com/msjwatt J.Watt

         That’s a poor excuse and kind of unfair. She’s not giving a dissertation and this is to a specific set of people. Of course she’s going to sound this way. I’m sure she’s capable of saying more…I think.

        • http://gabyrippling.tumblr.com/ Gabriella M

          I didn’t really mean it as an insult. It’s colloquial and youthful, and it’s a quote for an ad campaign so it’s not a dissertation, you’re right. She is a young person, so I expect she talks like one. 

  • schadenfreudelicious

    for someone who claims to be selling a very “alive” fragrance, Kristin looks like she just crawled out of the grave, plus that stitching on the dress makes me think of a post mortum…ugh…..

    • Fordzo

      She IS a vampire.  

    • http://twitter.com/urban_gypsy Tess Danesi

      Oh god, now that you said that all I see is an autopsy, a colorful little autopsy, when I look at that dress and I kind of liked it before. I think the dress actually suits her but the whole “undead” look for a perfume ad is not at all appealing, but then again I don’t get her at all. And those shoes remind me vaguely of Marc Jacob’s pilgrim thing though nowhere near as egregiously ugly. 

      • Kristin McNamara

        and yet, still pretty damn ugly.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Lucía-Gavello/1253586868 Lucía Gavello

      She looks like someone just slapped her, or like someone should.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=751285857 Sally Brownson

      The stitching, I don’t mind, but the dead-face is not helpful. Her makeup is really, really bad.

  • siriuslover

    So she’s never worn perfume. OK. And I guess, based on most of her red carpet poses, that this is as natural as she gets… the “I’m gonna kick your ass if you say one damn thing about me wearing a fashionable dress” look.

    • http://www.facebook.com/shreya.aren Shreya Aren

      And apparently, this is her ‘just looking comfortable’. 

  • http://twitter.com/jelizap Jane Patterson

    I actually think the ramrod pose works well against the rioting flowers, though more facial expression would be nice. But whoever did the retouch on her legs and arms should never be allowed near Photoshop again.

    • FlamingJune1967

      You are so right!  They photoshopped her right limbs to be thinner than her left!

    • http://www.facebook.com/shreya.aren Shreya Aren

      Her left leg looks like she doesn’t have a joint at her knee.

  • http://twitter.com/AllForUSophia AllForUSophia

    She looks like she hasn’t showered in days!

    • Fordzo

      Her hair does look rather greasy and limp, doesn’t it?

      • Kristin McNamara

        yes and yes.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1208138556 Sara Munoz Munoz

      Yeah. Kristen Stewart really doesn’t strike me as someone I’d want to smell like. 

  • PeaceBang

    So it’s a fragrance for dead young women? 

    • http://twitter.com/SparklyCasanova UglyCasanova

      Who apparently can’t stop fiddling themselves.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Linda-Harris/1358701372 Linda Harris

    She”s so pale she looks like a vampire

  • nannypoo

    There have been some recent posts showing her in attractive clothes, putting forth some effort to look clean and motivated. Here she is back to her usual form.

  • quiltrx

    Cool dress, very her, and I like the background.  Her hair needed a wash.

    And DAMN that Photoshop on her arms and legs is weird.  Especially her arms, they look like a Silkstone Barbie doll.  Creepy.

  • LesYeuxHiboux

    The clothing looks great, the dress works with the background and her simple pose works with the strong geometric of the bottle. Her makeup and hair make her look consumptive. Her completely artless description has made me want to find and smell this perfume. 

  • Saucysusan

    Dress is ugly. Shoes are hideous. Hair is dirty. Makeup is deathly looking. Her comments are inane. This sells the perfume how?

  • Lina_bee

    To me this says, “Balenciaga: made of CRACK.”

  • http://twitter.com/Fibercrazed Sara

    I wanted to like her. I really did. I tried. Even went to the midnight show of Snow White and rooted for her to do well. I give up. Same open mouth and vacant expression as always. I can’t. And no way she’s a vampire. They’re more lively.

  • guest2visits

    I kind of love the style of the dress, painfully short – but perfect for it’s advertisement qualities.
    Kristen, however, is so pale and washed out – this could be any pretty model standing there.
    I like the model’s footwear better. Feet dipped in black tar would look better than these crushers;
        – although I guess it’s to make statement about the fragrance.

  • Sara__B

    I am obviously NOT the target audience for this ad. Nothing about it makes me want to buy this perfume, or be around a person who does, except for the interesting little dress peeking out from under that nasty hair.

  • MilaXX

    She’s another one I don’t ever need to hear speak. I think they got it half right here. They styled this dress in a way that I could see  KStew wearing this in real life, but the face she is giving just doesn’t work for me. it make her look constipated.

  • Lisa Dugan

    This is the ad they chose so they’re obviously thrilled with it but I don’t get the makeup and hair at all.
    She can look so beautiful, or edgy if that’s why they were going for.  The dichotomy yada yada. She just looks washed out and limp. Cool dress though.

  • michelle shields

    blah blah blah blah blah

  • kingderella

    the balenciaga spring 2008 collection was indeed fantastic – iconic, even – but i still think its a little odd that they are advertising their new fragrance with a five year old dress.

    oh and yeah, stewart is useless. those poor photgraphers/stylists/art directors/graphic designers who have to put up with her, just because shes inexplicably a-list right now.

    • boweryboy

      I know, right?

      My thoughts exactly.  That collection was mind blowing but why wouldn’t they put her in a something from a more recent collection?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1208138556 Sara Munoz Munoz

    Looks like every picture I’ve ever seen of her. I assume that’s what they’re going for??

  • greyhoundgirl

    What exactly are her hands doing in there?

  • choco

    horrible actress, but can definitely take a pretty je-ne-sais-quois kinda picture

  • SophieCollier

    They overdid her knees in Photoshop.  She looks like a doll.  The dress is interesting, don’t mind the pose, but some sort of facial expression would have been.. oh wait.  It’s Kristen.  Nevermind.

  • boweryboy

    I don’t understand the point of her in the ad.  I mean, what does she bring to it?  If you block her out it’s a pretty eyecatching ad.

    • jcars

       Was just going to say this. She looks like an afterthought. As if the entire campaign were done and then they remembered they’d signed a contract with her so just shopped a tiny version of her beside the bottle. She really is the worst part of the ad. The flowers/bottle kind of work and make for an eye catching ad.

  • pugluv

    I don’t understand how this disinterested, affected, poorly groomed persona will help sell the fragrance…am I missing something?

  • NurseEllen

    I, like, so hate the trend of inserting “like” into every sentence, every quote, and every breathless interview.  I am so, like, over it.  I can’t believe the folks at WWD would not exercise their editorial discretion and at least make the girl sound as if she can speak properly, even if she’s missed out on other critical life lessons, such as effective hair washing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/D.D.D.Dino Dino Bonačić

    i don’t get the connection between her brand&image and the florabotanica perfume. :S

    I get that they wanted a shocking element of contrast (her ‘dead’ image with flowers around her), but it looks utterly ridiculous.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Maya-KC/537771651 Maya KC

    She looks like she can’t quite read the teleprompter.

  • GillianHolroyd

    I’d like to see the Venn diagram for Balenciaga and Kristen Stewart fans. The intersection must be infinitesimal.

  • PaulaBerman

    The positive: it’s nice that Balenciaga let KStew be KStew. She’s right that a forced sexy pose would have seemed false for her image. That said, she looks so  angry about the whole thing that it kind of ruins it, and she doesn’t look like she’s wearing Florabotanica, if that makes any sense. It makes me remember when Jennifer Connelly was the face of Balenciaga, and that was a much more natural fusion to me. Also, are Kristen’s legs actually that skinny in real life? I mean, yes, they are quite thin, but she does have thighs that are wider than her knees. Disturbing.

    • http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal

      the runway model looks pretty pissed off too.  is it something about the perfume?  there was a star trek episode where they landed on a planet with giant flowers that spit out pollen that made everyone angry, and kirk and spock were punching each other.  may be they used that pollen to make florabotanica. 

  • luluransom

    She really does look like a Tim Burton character come to life.

  • tereliz

    It’s a set of cardboard cut-outs, people, she’s just trying to fit in!

  • SignLadyB

    Like, Kristen, like I believe the word ‘like’ went out with the like Valley Girls. Like can you make a like sentence without like using ‘like’ unless you are using it as a verb as in prefer? Like.

  • marilyn

    If the skirt was longer, it would be fine.  The shoes don’t work with it at all.  What is Baleniaga trying to say with this ad?  Kristin is in a printed daytime dress, that is covered up and looks very off the rack.  Then the shoes are hiking boots.  This does not make me think of fragrance.  

  • jcars

    I find this whole campaign to have a strange obligatory feel. Reusing a dress that’s not only 5 years old but was actually used in a campaign already, the “whatever” pose, the sloppy photoshopping, the randomness of just throwing some flowers, a giant perfume bottle, and KStew into a shot together? This feels rushed and like no one cared. 

  • belfebe

    She looks great.

  • http://twitter.com/LianaBrooks Liana Brooks

    She scares me. 

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/K3O2QNXDJIU3AJINAGNJRYWDZ4 mrspotts66

    would somebody please give the girl a mirror and a brush?  GAH!

  • Cathy S

    I like everything but the shoes and the fact that she is so pale she is practically see-through. I think she looks really good though.

  • Judy_J

    Would it kill her to smile?  Perhaps she’s afraid her face will break.

  • http://frankbettecenter.org/ sleah_in_norcal

    “it kind of puts you on this level of, like, “whoa, check me out.”  is this remark supposed to make me, like, want to buy this perfume?  it’s not working for me.

  • http://profiles.google.com/rosatcollege Ros Clarke

    I like the dress on her, but I still don’t get why people are taking photos of this woman. She’s not enjoying it and it shows so much.