Fashion designer Riccardo Tisci is facing serious legal trouble following a sexual assault lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday. The complaint, brought by plaintiff Patrick Cooper, alleges Tisci drugged and sexually assaulted him after a night out in East Harlem in June 2024.
According to the 11-page filing, Cooper claims he encountered Tisci at a bar where the Italian-born designer allegedly slipped something into his drink. Cooper says he lost consciousness shortly after and woke up the next morning naked next to an unclothed Tisci in the designer’s SoHo residence.
“Upon information and belief, [Tisci] intended to make [Cooper] so disoriented as to no longer know where he was, what he was doing, or what other people, particularly Defendant, was doing to him,” the suit reads.
Cooper told The Independent he went straight to the hospital for a rape kit exam after leaving Tisci’s home and reported the alleged assault to police. “I remember sipping the drink, and I don’t remember anything else,” Cooper said. “To this day, I still don’t remember anything. Nothing.”
A representative for Tisci, the former creative director of Givenchy and Burberry, has strongly denied the allegations.
“These allegations are categorically untrue,” the spokesperson said in a statement to WWD. “Riccardo looks forward to clearing his name of these false and malicious allegations. He will obtain vindication through due process.”
Cooper is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of the court’s jurisdictional limits, as well as attorney’s fees and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.
The NYPD has not confirmed whether an active investigation is underway but issued a general statement: “The NYPD takes sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors.”
