Rick Owens is always full of surprises.

This time however, the surprise didn’t come from the designer himself, but from one of his models, Jera Diarc.

During the men’s spring 2016 presentation at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the model whipped out a makeshift banner that read “PLEASE KILL ANGELA MERKEL NOT” scrawled in black marker when he walked down the runway.

The crosses bore slogans such as ‘borders kill’.
Photo: DPA via Süddeutsche Zeitung

Last Sunday, 5,000 protesters led by Center for Political Beauty (Zentrum Für Politische Schönheit), a German collective of performance artists and activists, marched towards Angela Merkel’s residence in Berlin to express their anger over the EU’s mishandling of refugees. The group wants the German leader to address the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Backstage, Owens told Dazed magazine, “I think it says Kill Angela Merkel or something? Is that what it said? I don’t know because it was not my idea. He pulled it out and I punched him when he came off stage. He’s been my male muse for the past twelve years or something and I think he just felt comfortable enough to do something in a show and I’m furious.”

Owens, known for his drop-crotch shorts, long black T-shirts, and slick leather separates, is also an avid art collector and furniture designer.

His camp quickly issued a statement that read, “Rick Owens does not claim responsibility for the act of protest by a model at the spring summer 2016 show,” calling it “an independent statement” that “does not reflect the opinion of the house of Rick Owens.”