Balenciaga just paid for Nicole Kidman’s room upgrade

The last time we saw Nicole Kidman in a hotel room she was rutting around on the crusty carpet like a crazed dog, coaxed to the precipice of sexual oblivion by a 25-year-old intern. While Babygirl offered its fair share of special moments, Harris Dickinson’s Sam could only afford a shitty motel, so Romy Mathis was forced to wear her steam-cleaned chiffon to a room that wouldn’t hold up well under a blacklight. Fast forward to now, and Kidman has returned to the surroundings of a suite, but this time Balenciaga has graciously forked out for her room upgrade.

Taking a starring role in the French maison’s latest campaign, the Australian icon swaps Babygirl’s seedy suite for a palatial hotel in Biarritz, lounging about her room in Balenciaga’s AW25 collection. In one image, Kidman reclines across the bedspread in a black lace gown while biting her thumb, a second she brandishes her Rodeo bag with hand on hip, and a third she has a little rest on the floor in front of an antique writing desk. Shot by Juergen Teller, the campaign reimagines his 1999 series “The Clients” as a “cross-sectional representation of Balenciaga’s couture clientele”, which makes sense as they’re just lounging around in expensive rooms doing nothing.

Elsewhere in the campaign, fellow brand ambassador Isabelle Huppert sports an incredibly manicured fuck-ass Robert with a blank stare, and in another shot goes for the unlikely combo of fur coat and goalie gloves; supermodel Claudia Schiffer also checks in, and goes hell for leather in a corseted jacket and black Le City bag; The White Lotus’s Patrick Schwarzenegger swaps his board shorts for a black suit and motorcycle helmet; Chinese actor Arthur Chen looks bog-ready in a pair of knee-high wading boots; Liu Wen stands out from the crowd in a neon pink bodycon dress; while Adut Akech goes for a Canadian tuxedo skirt suit and a face-swallowing visor.

“The talents wear looks from the Winter 25 Collection – a multifaceted representation of the wardrobe,” said the house in the press release. “The looks complement and contrast the hotel’s ornate interiors, creating a deliberate tension emphasized through Teller’s distinctive, unfiltered visual language.” And if that wasn’t enough, accompanying the campaign is a short video directed by Teller where he “reflects on his process and approach to image-making” via an audio commentary over clips of the stars. “This is another Balenciaga video, this time in a hotel,” he reveals.

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for the entire AW25 campaign