Wang Off Duty

for work, they could be downplayed as drunken party antics. In a few cases, the accusers even continued to see the designer, making excuses for his behavior or blaming themselves.

James did just that. He met Wang during Fashion Week in February 2019 after walking into the West Village club Up & Down just as the designer and his party bus arrived. When Wang beckoned the 18-year-old over to his table, James was flattered. Like Bullen, he was a fashion student at Parsons and admired the industry icon who had dropped out of the same school. As with the others, after a few seconds of small talk, Wang reached down James’s pants and groped his genitals. James was so shocked he froze. None of the designer’s friends seemed surprised, if they noticed at all.

Wang then grabbed James’s phone, texted himself, and a few weeks later invited the student over after they met up at a party. “Come here alone,” he texted, along with an invitation to a friend’s birthday at a midtown hotel. James went, feeling excited by the attention. When he showed up, he says, the lights were off in Wang’s bedroom and another man was there—a detail he had not been forewarned of. James was uncomfortable but also felt pressure to stay and impress the designer, and the three men hooked up.

Wang and James met up again the following month at a midtown club. Shortly after he arrived at Wang’s table, he says, the designer unzipped James’s pants without asking and started to perform oral sex while crouching down. He wasn’t aroused and thought others might be able to see what was happening. Once again, he froze. Wang stopped when a security guard shone a light in their direction. James told himself this behavior was a normal part of queer club culture and felt ashamed that he hadn’t been “excited and hard” and went on to see the designer two more times. A friend of James’s remembers that at first he was flattered to be hanging out with Wang but quickly became uneasy about their encounters, all of which he told her about. Another friend says he spoke of the experiences with resignation, as if they were “a part of the fashion business.”

“It felt like there was an underlying contract,” James says now. “I was getting the opportunity to hang out with him, and I sort of owed him something.”

Wang has already tried to discredit some of his accusers. When the Times published an allegation from David Casavant, a stylist and archivist, that Wang had exposed Casavant’s genitals in a Brooklyn club in 2017, Wang’s lawyers responded by pointing to disparaging comments Casavant had made about Wang’s designs for Balenciaga, implying an “irrefutable yearslong personal animus.” When the Daily Mail ran the account of a 23-yearold male model named Nick who continued to see Wang socially after the designer had allegedly abused him, Wang’s representatives provided text messages that indicated ongoing contact after the incident. (It’s common for people to stay in touch after being abused, especially when there’s a power imbalance involved, for reasons that include fear of retaliation, denial, and self-blame.) Garison, the trans model who says she was groped by Wang in 2017, explains that the experience was particularly disturbing because she and many trans women already struggle with feelings of shame. “I’m not as comfortable with the body parts that I have,” she says, “and I don’t always want to show off what’s below the belt. It’s very sensitive.” (In 2019, former Wang collaborator Azealia Banks shared stories to her Instagram from additional, anonymous trans accusers.)

In queer spaces in particular, where sexual freedom is sometimes equated with independence, rebellion, or a hard-won right, sex can be part of the point of a night out, and the lines of license and consent can become clouded. Many of the individuals who came forward with allegations about Wang acknowledged that, in queer nightlife, behavior like his was not entirely out of the ordinary. In many cases, they had turned the incidents into jokes, funny stories, celebrity anecdotes. And yet, to a person, each said what they had experienced with Wang was more aggressive than any touch or flirtation they had otherwise encountered in clubs. “In my three years in New York—or before, anywhere—I’ve never had someone be as pushy,” says Eric, who met Wang at the queer party “Papi Juice” in the spring of 2018. Wang bought him a drink and, after chatting for a bit, kissed him and, despite Eric’s protests that he had a boyfriend and in full view of the entire bar, put his hands down Eric’s pants and groped him. When Eric told him in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t go home with him, Wang stormed off. “I’ve never had anyone reach their hands down my pants, ever,” Eric says.

It’s difficult to say what consequences Wang will face, if any. Since the flurry of accusations began at the end of last year, the fashion world— including the people whose livelihoods depend on Wang and the companies that profit from selling his clothes—has been quietly waiting. Generally speaking, the industry has been slow to condemn its own who are accused of being predators. After more than 20 male models accused the photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino of sexual misconduct in 2018, Condé Nast stopped working with both of them and their reputations and careers suffered. (Both men denied the allegations.) But memories are short, and both are slowly, quietly beginning to pick up work again. Guess founder Paul Marciano was recently sued for sexual harassment but is still the brand’s chief creative officer. “The fashion industry thinks that it’s sort of immune to the Me Too movement because there’s a certain sexual vibe that runs through it,” says Lisa Bloom, who has represented clients in suits against Weber and Marciano. “The law applies to them just like every other industry.”

It remains to be seen whether the accusations will curb Wang’s partying, though some influential people in nightlife predict he will become persona non grata on the New York club scene. (“Alex’s party days are done,” one says.) The statements Wang has released through his attorneys and on social media don’t suggest much introspection on the subject. For now, anyway, the pandemic has put a damper on much (though not all) of New York’s nightlife. This pause gives partygoers the time to reflect on, and in some cases reevaluate, their experiences in the clubs.

For a long time, McCallum minimized their experience with Wang. After the groping, they tried to push what had happened to the far corners of their mind and even interviewed for a job at Wang’s company in 2014. Their repression turned to anger as they watched the allegations—and Wang’s attacks on his accusers’ credibility—pile up. “It has affected me more than I initially realized,” McCallum says of their experience with Wang. “It’s hard not to get really emotional about.” For McCallum, justice isn’t about suing the designer or seeing him behind bars. What they want, perhaps naïvely, is an apology or an acknowledgment of what happened. But after Wang continued to smear these accounts as “false” and “fabricated,” there was no more staying quiet. “He’s calling me a liar,” says McCallum. “I just feel like he’s dangerous. And I just want him to stop.”