Fashion is having a #MeToo reckoning.
As the saying goes, abuse of power comes as no surprise, so it may not shock you to hear that a major fashion designer would take advantage of his models. Unfortunately, though, when the victims of assault are members of the LGBTQ+ community, these issues don’t always get the attention they deserve. Luckily, there are some brave survivors coming forward now with allegations against celebrated designer Alexander Wang
The wave of accusations against Wang, who has dressed celebs like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Zoe Kravitz, Bella Hadid, and more, began on TikTok with Owen Mooney. The model responded to a prompt about weirdest “seeing a celebrity in public” experiences with this shocking allegation.
“By weird, I guess… being sexually assaulted by one counts, right? ‘Cause in 2017, I was in a club in New York City, and me and a bunch of mates went to watch the rapper Cupcakke, and the club was just like, hectic, it was so packed, could not move. And I was by myself at one point, and this guy next to me, obviously, like, took advantage of the fact that no one could f**king move, and he just started, like, touching me up, fully like, up my leg, in my crotch. It made me like, freeze completely, because I was in so much shock. And then I looked to my left to see who it was, and it was this really famous fashion designer. And I just couldn’t believe that he was doing that to me, it just made me go into even more shock. It was, like, really f**ked up, and I just had to slowly move myself away.”
While Mooney didn’t mention the designer by name, he confirmed Wang as the perpetrator when a commenter guessed accurately. In a since-deleted video, he shared:
“Turns out, Alexander Wang is a massive sexual predator, and there’s been a load of other people that he’s done this to. So in that case, he needs to be exposed. … And like, now, any time I see his name mentioned, or I see him with celebrities, they’re like best friends, it just reminds me of what he did, and it’s just a really f**ked up memory to have. So yeah, he just needs to be cancelled.”
The allegations were picked up by the social media account S**t Model Management, which seeks accountability for models in the fashion industry. They opened their Instagram DMs to other survivors of Wang’s abuse, and the floodgates opened to more stories about his behavior — many of which accused the 37-year-old of spiking drinks in order to take advantage of his victims.
Once the allegations started appearing on Instagram, many magazines reached out to the 37-year-old fashion designer to get his comment. However, a report in WWD magazine revealed that Wang had declined to comment when they reached out.