Model at Rick Owens Fashion Show in Paris Protests Angela Merkel

The words “Please kill Angela Merkel – Not” were written on a white piece of cloth held by the young long-haired man. The model is known under the name of Jera, according to WWD.

“He pulled it out and I punched him when he came off stage”, the designer said in a statement.

At the 2013 Nina Ricci show, two female protests from the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN got a small more hostile, storming the runway topless and seizing the models’ arms.

“I think it says ‘Kill Angela Merkel’ or something?” I don’t know because it was not my idea.

As Dazed notes, the protest display was especially ironic in light of the fashion show’s theme.

Owens told AFP: “The irony is that the collection is kind of about male aggression”. Rick Owens was always loyal to Jera, Gödel says, seeing him as a muse “even though no one else would book Jera”. “When does ambition and efficiency spill over into aggression?”

A statement from Owens’ fashion house said he didn’t “claim responsibility for the act of protest by a model at the spring summer 2016 show”, branding it an “independent statement”. “His aggression took over”.

While a Rick Owens show is often some sort of spectacle, there were an unusual amount of things distracting from the spring ’16 shoes in Paris this season.

Rick Owens was infuriated when his “male muse” staged an impromptu protest at the fashion designer’s men’s show in Paris on Thursday, holding up a politically-charged sign that referenced homicide.