Fashion editor at Vice’s i-D magazine suspended over sexual misconduct claims
A top executive at one of the UK’s biggest fashion magazines has been suspended by the company after more than a dozen women accused him of sending sexually inappropriate messages.
Max Clark, fashion editor at i-D magazine, is a prominent figure in the industry and has been employed by the influential publication, which is owned by Vice Media, since 2014. He has also worked as a high-end stylist on promotional shoots for brands such as Prada, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Nike and Supreme – working at events such as London fashion week.
Messages reviewed by the Guardian show women claiming Clark made unwanted advances towards them, with the separate alleged incidents taking place over several years. Many of the women were relatively junior employees, working in fashion or the media, who said they received unsolicited explicit messages from Clark over social media in the early hours of the morning.
Their claims were collected semianonymously via Instagram before being passed to Vice’s human resources department, prompting the company to launch a formal investigation and suspend Clark last week. The allegations have led to the comments section on i-D’s social media posts being flooded with people asking about the investigation.
A spokesperson for Vice, which bought i-D magazine a decade ago, said: “We are taking these allegations extremely seriously and are handling them according to our established standards and processes. We retained an independent, outside investigator to investigate the claims and in order to not compromise the integrity of the investigation, we are fairly limited in what we can say at this stage.
“What we can unequivocally say is that we strive to maintain a work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and as such, we immediately took the appropriate steps to ensure we are providing a safe working environment for our employees and partners.”
Clark’s listing on the website of his management company Artistry has also been removed, with details of his fashion shoots and big-name clients removed from the internet.
A spokesperson for the agency said: “We operate a zero-tolerance policy for any allegations of this nature and we will not represent/promote any person under such serious investigation.”
In a statement, his lawyer said: “Mr Clark denies any allegations of sexual harassment or any other form of sexual misconduct in the strongest of terms and will use all legal avenues available to him to clear his name.”
Vice, which built its name as irreverent publication aimed at thenyouthful millennials, has had historic issues with allegations of sexual harassment in the company. This culminated in a 2017 New York Times investigation into the company’s internal culture at the height of the #MeToo movement which resulted in the departure of a leading executive.
Soon afterwards Vice’s founder, Shane Smith, also stepped down as chief executive, handing day-to-day control to Nancy Dubuc, who promised to change the company’s internal culture. The company was valued at $5.7bn as recently as 2017 but this has since plummeted, with the company instead raising money from existing investors in a bid to reach profitability.