Adidas to Investigate Accusations Against Russian Designer Gosha Rubchinskiy
Designer Gosha Rubchinskiy is in the hot seat. Over the weekend, accusations surfaced that the Russian designer solicited a minor for inappropriate photos, as seen in a series of screenshots shared by Diet Prada — the whistleblower Instagram account that has taken up the role of calling out injustices and copycats in the fashion industry.
Now Adidas, one of Rubchinskiy’s biggest brand partners, is looking into the matter.
“I can assure you that Adidas takes any allegation of this nature extremely seriously and are currently looking into the claim that has been made,” an Adidas spokesperson said in response to FN’s request for comment.
Adidas and Rubchinskiy’s most recent collaboration revolved around a special sneaker that was shown in Moscow this year just ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which took place in Russia from June 14 to July 15. In addition to the sports giant, the designer, who launched his luxury streetwear label in 2008, has partnered with Fila, Levi’s, Dr. Martens and Burberry.
Rubchinskiy has refuted all claims; his team sent out a statement claiming that the conversation was taken out of context.
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“This was a street casting for a look book shoot. The person sent a direct mail to us asking to be considered for the casting,” the statement read. “The person started contacting us very often demanding an answer about the casting and became a bit weird. So Gosha blocked him and we think this is why the person is trying to make Gosha look bad, and turn what was a totally innocent street casting look something that it was not. We have been doing such direct street casting for 10 years and we have never had such a problem, therefore this is invalid.”
The 16-year-old in question appeared to retaliate against Rubchinskiy’s statement on Instagram. “I was not part of any casting process I was aware of…I was uncomfortable when [he] told my face was sexy, asked to send more photos “like that” when I was shirtless, and pushed for photos from the bathroom,” he allegedly said in a post.
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