Gosha Rubchinskiy denies misconduct claims by 16-year-old

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Dec 10, 2018

Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy has denied allegations he engaged in inappropriate behaviour with a minor after screenshots posted on gossip sites seemed to suggest the designer tried to obtain racy photos from a 16-year-old.

The claims started this weekend when teenager Jan Silfverling shared images of conversations he had with Rubchinskiy on Instagram and Whatsapp.

The screenshots, shared on Facebook group High Fashion Talk, as well as Supreme Leaks News and Diet Prada, showed messages sent by the designer asking for photos from the 16-year-old.

The designer, who announced plans to stop showing seasonal collections earlier this year, said the messages were part of a casting process and that the brand has been casting young models personally throughout his career.

In a statement to FashionNetwork.com, his team said: "Gosha has been doing casting by Instagram for many years now. It is a normal practice nowadays. We always ask to face photos, in full length and topless. Sometimes photos in underwear are required in order to understand the volume of hips.

"After the person confirmed by us, we contact him officially by email, if it is teenager, then we begin to communicate with his parents. Sometimes  in instagram we receive strange messages in direct message, sometimes they send inappropriate photos, especially when we reject them for casting.  We immediately block these people and delete all inappropriate photos.

"All of this looks like a planned provocation... Gosha has nothing to hide."

Members of the fashion industry, including Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des des Garçons International; Tolia Titaev, who co-founded the PACCBET brand with Rubchinskiy; and Valentin Fufaev of Doublecheeseburger are understood to have spoken out in support of the Russian designer.