Cindy Crawford with her 16-year-old daughter Kaia Gerber. Photo / Getty Images
Cindy Crawford with her 16-year-old daughter Kaia Gerber. Photo / Getty Images
Chanel has come under fire for using Cindy Crawford's teenage daughter in its latest accessories campaign.
The French fashion house snapped up Kaia Gerber, 16, to model its SS18 handbag collection but has divided shoppers over images posted online which show the model reclining on a sofa in Gabrielle Chanel's Parisian apartment, reported the Daily Mail.
Kaia was photographed at 31 Rue Cambon by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld for her latest gig, with Chanel declaring that she "embodies" its new handbag campaign, #CHANELHandbagstories.
Reacting on Facebook and Instagram this week, customers vented their fury at Chanel's choice to use the model, claiming she is "too young" and claiming she is "barely dressed" in the photos.
Photographed by Karl Lagerfeld at Gabrielle Chanel’s Parisian apartment, Kaia Gerber embodies the new handbag campaign....
While one fumed: "It is no doubt that she is a beautiful young lady... too young, too barely dressed as a 16 years old in Gabrielle Chanel owned apartment [sic.]"
However not everyone disapproved of the campaign, without one Facebook user leaping to Kaia's defence writing: "Absolutely stunning. Certainly a keeper for Chanel. Her beautiful parents will keep her grounded."
Others congratulated Chanel on their "great decision" with one penning: "People need to lighten up."
Kaia, who turned 16 in September last year, is the daughter of nineties supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber.
Kaia Gerber walking for Chanel. Photo / Getty Images
She made her fashion debut aged 10, modelling for Young Versace, and has since starred in Vogue and walked the runway for Marc Jacobs, Burberry and Prada.
At the time, her mother was not keen on her daughter entering the modelling world at such a young age, explaining: "At this point, she's too young to pursue a career. There aren't even a handful of jobs for a 10-year-old girl."
Kaia's mother Cindy, 52, has also expressed her concern at the pressures faced by young models entering the fashion industry.
Speaking to Refinery29 in 2016, she said: "I have a daughter who is entering this world, and the expectation is for them to be even thinner now.
"I was always a size 6; I was never super-skinny and I never felt bad about it... You could have boobs, you could have hips, you could have a little extra flesh. Now, the models are expected to be so much thinner."
