Alexander Wang
Photo: MARK RALSTON / AFP via Getty Images
Days after a male model Alexander Wang publicly accused him of touching him, causing a spate of allegations of sexual assault against the celeb favorite designer, Wang finally broke his silence on the matter. Wang dismissed the allegations – which include drugs and rape – as “unfounded and grotesquely false” in a statement to New York Times.
“I never described the horrific behavior described and would never behave as alleged,” Wang wrote. “I intend to take note of this and be responsible for whoever is responsible for the origin of these allegations and their malicious distribution online.”
The allegations began to escalate late last week after model Owen Mooney accused Wang of grabbing his genitals at a busy nightclub in New York City in 2017. In a video shared on TikTok, Mooney recounts: ‘I was alone at one point and this guy next to me naturally benefited from the fact that no one could move and just started picking me up, like my leg, to my cross. ‘While Mooney initially did not disclose Wang’s identity in the first video and only referred to the man as a’ very famous fashion designer ‘, he says in a follow-up video that he decided to identify Wang after several commentators designer correctly guessed. “It turns out Alexander Wang is a massive sexual predator,” Mooney said.
After the Instagram account posted ShitModelMgmt Mooney’s videos, more allegations began to roll in, compiling and sharing that account, as well as Diet Prada. The stories paint a disturbing picture of Wang, who is known for his fun parties: some claim he drugged them with MDMA drinking water or forced them to drink outside their bounds; one person claims that Wang raped their friend. “The designer has built his brand around a hard party, everything goes ethos, ‘inspired’ walk of shame ‘campaigns and even for R. Kelly in his SS17 campaign,” reads the caption in the Diet Prada report. “But now stories are washing out from behind the velvet rope.”
In his statement, Wang referred to the above-mentioned reports and described them as ‘notorious for placing defamatory material from unknown and / or anonymous sources with no evidence or any fact-checking.’ The Times notes that it did not independently confirm the recent allegations against Wang and that Mooney did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
As Diet Prada noted, this is not the first time Wang has been accused of predatory behavior. In late 2019, Azealia Banks, who has collaborated with Wang in the past, shared anonymous allegations of sexual assault against the designer, accusing him of focusing on women. Two years before that, the Times a man named Nick Ward accused Wang of grabbing his genitals during a concert in Brooklyn.