During the women’s collection, we had Zoolander at Valentino. On Thursday morning, in Paris, a model who goes by the name Jera (ooh, how mysterious!) unfurled a tiny piece of fabric as he reached the end of the runway at Rick Owens. Printed on it were the words PLEASE KILL ANGELA MERKEL NOT. Rick Owens gave WWD possibly the best quote a designer has ever given the publication: “It’s a crazy, rogue, f***ing model that I punched when he came back out.” Could you just imagine? The young model – ‘cause let’s face it, he’s probably like, 17 TOPS! – gets backstage after his little protest (because he really didn’t think this through) and then BOOM! Rick Owens just suckerpunches him in the face. Personally, no, I do not imagine that that actually happened, but Owens’ sensing my skepticism reiterated to WWD, “Please say that I punched him.” The icing on the cake came from a press release from Owens’ company requesting all media to “omit or blur this image in the press.” Ha ha ha, why would we do that?
