Alexander Wang Has Been Accused of Sexual Assault

By Marie Solis  |  December 31, 2020 | 9:06pm
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Alexander Wang Has Been Accused of Sexual Assault
Photo:JP Yim (Getty Images)

Alexander Wang is facing multiple accusations of sexual assault.

The allegations were surfaced by fashion watchdog Instagram accounts Diet Prada and Shit Model Management, which shared tweets, Instagram stories, and direct messages describing a pattern of Wang preying on models and people he encountered in New York City night life. Though some of the allegations remain anonymous, two people have publicly shared their accounts of sexual harassment and assault by the designer.

In an interview with Insider, Nick Ward, a New York-based DJ, said Wang assaulted him during a 2017 set in Brooklyn. “As he was passing, he swung, squeezed me, and kept walking,” Ward told the outlet. Ward said Wang had been with a group of people who moved through the room “pretty quickly … so by the time I realized what happened, I just announced to my friend, ‘That guy just grabbed my dick’ and they’re all like, ‘That was Alexander Wang.’”

Ward had tweeted about the incident shortly after he alleged it occurred, but his accusation got little attention at the time.

Owen Mooney, a model and graphic designer, also accused Wang of groping him in 2017. After getting separated from his friends at a packed CupcakKe show in New York, Mooney said the man standing next to him began touching his leg and crotch.

“It made me freeze completely,” he said in a TikTok video from earlier this month.

When he looked to see who was touching him, Mooney said he recognized the man as “a really famous fashion designer.” Though Wang remains unnamed in the original video, in a subsequent TikTok, Mooney identifies him as the person who touched him.

Other anonymous accusers say they witnessed Wang drugging people, or pressuring people to drink alcohol before assaulting them.

“With everything that has come to light, I want the focus to be on the many allegations pouring in after I shared my story,” Mooney told Insider. “Although what happened to me was unacceptable, the stories being told by other victims is the reason why I have gone public.”

Wang described these as “baseless and grotesquely false accusations” in a statement he made through a spokesperson on Thursday:

“These claims have been wrongfully amplified by social media accounts infamous for posting defamatory material from undisclosed and/or anonymous sources with zero evidence or any fact-checking whatsoever,” he said.
“Seeing these lies about me being perpetuated as truths has been infuriating. I have never engaged in the atrocious behavior described and would never conduct myself in the manner that’s been alleged.
“[I intend] to get to the bottom of this and hold accountable whoever is responsible for originating these claims and viciously spreading them online.”

Jezebel has reached out to a spokesperson for Wang for comment. We’ll update this piece if we hear back.

 
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