March 9, 2021
Alexander Wang Offers Support to Accusers, Insists on His Innocence
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
High-profile fashion designer Alexander Wang took to Instagram on March 8 to say that he supports the rights of those who have accused him of sexual assault "to come forward," but he denies the claims they've made.
"I regret acting in a way that caused them pain," Wang wrote before adding, "While we disagree on some of the details of these personal interactions, I will set a better example and use my visibility and influence to encourage others to recognize harmful behaviors."
"The 37-year-old fashion designer has maintained that he never touched anyone inappropriately as at least 11 people came forward with allegations against him since late December," recounted UK newspaper the Daily Mail.
"The first of the allegations surfaced in December of last year," The Cut recounted, "when model Owen Mooney said on TikTok that, in 2017, Wang cornered him in a crowded New York City nightclub and 'just started touching me up, like, fully up my leg, in my crotch.'
"Similar stories – from people who say that Wang, formerly a fixture in New York's party scene, would ply them with alcohol and sometimes drug their drinks – quickly began piling up on social media," The Cut added.
Wang's remarks of March 8 followed a January 4 Instagram post in which he decried what he described as "baseless allegations" that he said "grotesquely false" and "started on social media by sites which repeatedly disregarded the value and importance of evidence or fact-checking."
Wang vowed in that post to "remain honest and transparent" while the allegations were investigated.
The Cut recalled that its parent publication, New York Magazine, "interviewed seven people whose allegations of misconduct ranged from dance floor groping to forced oral sex."
One of those, a man identified as Hugo, said that he "suspects Wang once had nonconsensual sex with him," The Cut related, a speculation that Wang's lawyer deemed "a homophobic smear."
Hugo said of Wang that "he's all about having fun, fun, fun, but then he pushes it too far sometimes – so far [that] another person sort of has to pay a price for it."
The Daily Mail noted that Wang's accusers "included transgender men and women and cisgender men," and some alleged that the designer "drugged their drinks with MDMA without their knowledge."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
