Rick Owens Says He Punched a Model Who Carried a Protest Banner on the Runway

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Designer Rick Owens is furious at a model at his SS16 menswear show who carried a banner reading "Please Kill Angela Merkel—Not" down the runway. Owens explained to Dazed Digital that he had nothing to do with this stunt and it wasn't meant to be part of the show. "Please, it was not planned...I don’t know what I have to do to tell everybody that," he said.

"I think it says Kill Angela Merkel or something? Is that what it said? I don’t know because it was not my idea. He pulled it out and I punched him when he came off stage. He’s been my male muse for the past 12 years or something and I think he just felt comfortable enough to do something in a show and I’m furious," Owens said.

He was very emphatic about the punching part. “It’s a crazy, rogue, f***ing model that I punched when he came back out,” Owens told WWD. “Please say that I punched him.”

The fashion house released an official statement, which read: "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." WWD reported that the house also requested that "all media omit or blur this image in the press."

BREAKING: Rick Owens have just issued this statement about the model in their show, just, and seen here: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 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.

A photo posted by TheSTStyle (@theststyle) on Jun 25, 2015 at 5:10am PDT