Rick Owens Defends Assaulting His Model

When a male model at Rick Owens'sspring/summer 2016 menswear show took it upon himself to hold a personal demonstration on the catwalk - holding up a piece of paper that read, "Please kill Angela Merkel Not" as he approached the photographers' pit - understandably the designer was upset. Now, he has shed light on reports that he assaulted the model when he got backstage.

"I was pissed at that moment. I thought, 'Hey, this is my spotlight, and you fucked it up'," he told Surface. "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. I don't mind drama, but I don't like death threats."

Despite being no stranger to provocative gestures, Owens insists that there is a fine line between suggestion and an outright slur (the brand asked that images of the outburst were removed from press coverage), revealing that he hasn't seen or spoken to the model, known as Jera, since.

"What he did was just so illogical," he continued. "He was very accepted here and embraced by a community of people who were very affectionate toward him-a group that now feels more hostility toward him than I do because they feel protective of me. It was really a self-destructive gesture. That was my biggest problem-that it was a negative gesture. Whenever I do provocation, I'm always doing something that I feel is based on warmth and kindness and love."