Rick Owens’ runways are never short on spectacles: Estonian heavy metal bands, step teams, and casual full frontal have all taken center stage. But when his longtime male model muse Jera unveiled a scrap of white fabric scrawled with the message “Please Kill Angela Merkel — Not,” Owens was understandably furious. In a new interview with Surface, Rick conceded his anger was in part a desire to distance himself from the act: “The whole reason I hit the guy was I knew if I didn’t react very strongly it might get out that this was some stunt that I had planned. Everybody had to know how strongly I disagreed with this,” the designer said. “I don’t mind drama, but I don’t like death threats.”
Rick also revealed that he hasn’t spoken to Jera since, and doesn’t plan to. The model “certainly has some demons,” AM Casting Director Angus Munro told i-D following the show, but his decade-long tenure as Rick’s muse made the guerilla stunt all the more hurtful: “He was very accepted here and embraced by a community of people who were very affectionate toward him…It was really a self-destructive gesture,” Rick told Surface.
Owens told the magazine that his anger ultimately stems from Jera’s negative message: “Whenever I do provocation, I’m always doing something that I feel is based on warmth and kindness and love.” Even the dicks? Especially the dicks. Owens explained that his runway nudity was actually motivated by body positivity: “That was really about: Let’s consider a world where there’s no shame. Why did your parents teach you that your penis is ugly?”
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Text Emily Manning