Rapper Cardi B has had an intense 24 hours.
On Monday, the singer made her runway debut, donning a blue, floor-length, faux-fur coat as part of the autumn 2024 show for the Spanish luxury house of Balenciaga, accessorised with jewellery created in a limited-edition collaboration with Jacob & Co.
The likes of Ashley Graham, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek and Zooey Deschanel were in the audience, and newly announced brand ambassador Nicole Kidman also attended. Danish model Brigitte Nielsen returned to the runway for the first time in decades for the show, which took place along South Windsor Boulevard, shutting down a stretch of the road. This was the first show in Los Angeles by Balenciaga.
The backlash seems equally high profile.
In the 24 hours since Cardi B walked the Balenciaga runway, she has lost more than 130,000 followers on Instagram – 133,619 to be precise, according to research by Reply Poker – her biggest single-day loss in 30 days.
And she is not alone.
Kim Kardashian and sister Kendall Jenner, who both attended the show, have also seen marked drops, with the former losing 300,000 followers and the latter losing even more at 500,000.
Backlash at Balenciaga
The show comes on the heels of Balenciaga’s recent It’s Different campaign. A very public declaration of a new era at the house, the campaign is clearly looking to draw a line under what was a disastrous 2022 for the brand, when it was accused of sexualising children in an ad campaign.
The campaign made an uncomfortable link between children and the very adult world of S&M. As the brand rushed to pull the offending images of teddy bears in padlock necklaces and harnesses, a second, unrelated image seemed to be using legal papers pertaining to child sexual assaults as a prop in the background.
The backlash that followed was scathing and threatened to topple creative director Demna from his role.
Poor management of the scandal only compounded things, with Demna and Balenciaga seen as slow to respond, seemingly trying to wriggle out of blame by pinning it on others. When the company did apologise, it was a case of too little, too late. Since then, the company has been keeping a very low profile, waiting for the furore to die down.
However, it seems the public is not yet willing to forgive and forget. Not only did people take punitive action against the celebrities in attendance, the brand also lost 6,082 followers since the show took place.
When the scandal first swamped Balenciaga last November, Kardashian publicly stepped back from the brand, saying she was “re-evaluating” her relationship with it. Following public apologies, the two have since reconciled; however, her Instagram followers clearly do not seem to agree.
The only one to come out on top is Kidman, who was named Balenciaga's new face on the day of the show, and has since gained 5,000 followers.
While this lays bare the fickle nature of online followers, it also suggests that the public is not finished with the scandal that almost sunk the house last year. Balenciaga may be trying to put on a brace face and move on, but the drop in figures suggests that, for some followers at least, the issue is not over.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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