"Please Kill Angela Merkel — Not," read a passive-aggressive hand-scrawled sign held up by a rogue model during a Rick Owens fashion show in Paris Thursday.
A statement released immediately following the stunt — committed by a model identified as Jera by Women's Wear Daily — explained that Owens had no part in the silent protest of the German chancellor. "Rick Owens does not claim responsibility for the act of protest by a model at the Spring Summer 2016 show. This was an independent statement and does not reflect the opinion of the house of Rick Owens."
Owens, a noted designer popular among hip-hop's fashion intelligentsia (Kanye West and Jay Z are fans), is no stranger to controversy — he made headlines last season when several of his designs exposed parts of his model's penises — but the stunt seemed a bridge too far for the designer. "It's a crazy, rogue, f--king model that I punched when he came back out," Owens told WWD. "Please say that I punched him," he added.
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Ironically, Owens also said the collection, called "Cyclops," has an underlying theme of understanding and dismantling male aggression.