WANG’S WORLD: HOT TO NOT

BY: Andy Shoulders

Once of one fashion’s hottest rising stars, designer Alexander Wang has recently had quite the fall from grace.

On December 11, a TikTok video posted by British model Owen Mooney detailed how he was groped by Wang at a club in 2017.  Mooney alleged that Wang took advantage of the fact that the club was crowded, and proceeded to aggressively grope his leg & crotch area.  Mooney’s videos started to gain a lot of traction, and more and more victims began to come forward.

Then, on December 28, modeling watchdog account @ShitModelMgmt posted a message to its feed accusing Wang of sexually predatory behavior.  From there, a flood of DM screenshots appeared, detailing accounts of people being drugged against their will, groped, or even flat out raped by Wang.  The stories all seemed to have a common thread – that Wang would grope his victims inappropriately at clubs or bars, and then invite them to afterparties.  He allegedly offered them already-opened bottles of water and strongly encouraged them to finish the whole thing.  Apparently, the water was spiked with ecstasy, and victims wouldn’t discover this until it was too late (and already in their system).  Following this, varying degrees of sexual assault would allegedly occur.

This has been quite a departure from the Wang people thought they knew, to say the least.  His rise in the fashion world was strong and swift.  After launching his business in 2007, he soon became fashion’s newest, youngest darling.  Anna Wintour made him a “wunderkind” of sorts, personally promoting Wang and his designs.  In 2009, he was awarded the CFDA Swarovski Womenswear Designer of the Year award after his downtown cool, not-serious-but-serious-about-fashion aesthetic defined the look of the moment.  His infamous “WangFests” helped inject new energy and increased international attention into New York Fashion Week.  By 2012, he had taken over as Creative Director for Balenciaga, becoming the rare American to lead a French luxury brand.  During his three-year tenure there, both Balenciaga and Wang’s eponymous label became synonymous with sporty luxury, and Wang could soon be seen accompanying countless celebs and models to everything from movie premieres to the Met Gala.

It seems that the aforementioned WangFests are what started the pattern of Wang’s predatory behavior.  Because these “legendary” parties were what essentially cemented him in the fashion social scene, he became more and more comfortable with his wild-child status.  Eventually, Wang apparently became a little too comfortable, and allegations of sexual misconduct started surfacing.  Back in 2016, singer Florence Welch first reported Wang’s it’s-water-but-not-actually water trick in a Vanity Fair article.  2017 saw the trans community begin to discuss his behavior on social media (many of Wang’s accusers are trans), and in 2019, rapper Azealia Banks posted anonymous accounts of trans people’s abusive encounters with Wang on her Instagram.  Now the floodgates have opened, with Instagram account @DietPrada, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Business of Fashion all reporting similar allegations, and thus forcing the numerous accounts of abuse to be taken more seriously.

Wang has come out recently vehemently denying all of the reports, telling Vogue that he “has never taken advantage of others in a sexual manner or forced anything on anyone without consent.”  Nonetheless, people accusing Wang of just that have now taken legal action, with well-known attorney Lisa Bloom representing several of them.  

Of course, there are people on the other side of the aisle accusing these people of trying to use Wang’s celebrity status to make a name for themselves, but how many people have to come forward with almost the exact same story before they are taken seriously?  Only time will tell, but if the recent downfalls of other high-profile figures accused of sexual misconduct have told us anything, time probably isn’t on Wang’s side.