Cardi B is new face of Balenciaga and all over the Louvre in Paris

Just weeks after WAP, her bold, badass lyrical torrent of female empowerment, sent ripples through the music industry and shot straight to the top of the charts, Cardi B is back, and this time she’s making waves in fashion fronting her first major campaign.

Giant boards were erected on the side of the Louvre Museum in Paris this week featuring an image of the American rapper reclining on a lawn wearing a slinky black Balenciaga evening gown with built in gloves from Demna Gvasalia’s Autumn 2020 collection.

As a designer credited with injecting serious streetwear edginess into the storied French fashion house, Gvasalia typically chooses uber cool undiscovered talent for his campaigns. In fact, this marks the first time he has picked a celebrity to front a campaign since he took the helm at the brand in 2015.

But then Cardi B isn’t any old celebrity.

Posting the image on her Instagram, the 27-year-old musician wrote: “Ya looking at the face of a Balenciaga campaign! I remember how I felt seeing myself on a billboard in NYC Times Square but Paris! Wish I was there to see it in person!”

Cardi’s image, which will remain on the side of the Louvre for the next few weeks, is part of a wider campaign also featuring Eliza Douglas and members of the brand’s own creative team, who self-styled and shot themselves at home during lockdown.

Cardi B is seen reclining on a lawn surrounded by a slide and other children’s toys, presumably belonging to her baby Kulture, and a single white Neo Classic Balenciaga handbag.

While this is her first major campaign for a luxury brand, Cardi B has been a fashion darling for some time now, and has become a front row fixture at fashion shows including Chanel, Tom Ford and Thom Browne.