This news comes at a time when the discussion of consent between photographers and models has been intensified after The New York Times reported alleged abuse by Mario Testino and Bruce Weber and The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team revealed harassment allegations against photographers like Patrick Demarchelier and David Bellemere.
As Pall told The Advocate, he initially declined an opportunity to shoot with Day given his portfolio of nude and seminude shoots, but a go-see in October 2017 (where Day took a few head and body shots) led to a full shoot where Pall says, Day took erotic pictures and performed an unwanted sex act on the teenage model.
As The Advocate reported, Day pressured Pall to change in front of him, oil him up and told him to start rubbing himself to keep slightly erect to “fill out the underwear,” and then adjusted his underwear to graze his genitals inappropriately.
“Since the #MeToo movement started, I haven’t been able to go a day without feeling triggered and I now recognize I am suffering from PTSD,” Pall said to The Advocate. “Until you are in this position, you truly don’t know what it is like to have your career hanging over you. The predators in the fashion and entertainment industry run in circles, help each other out, and have each other’s backs. There is a reason why this systemic issue is only just coming out, and why it is not going to go away anytime soon.”
Pall began uploading YouTube videos discussing the dark side in his modeling career and says Day messaged him multiple times apologizing but not taking accountability.
The Advocate reached out to other models who have worked with Day, including Robert Sepulveda Jr., but many had had different experiences. "I never once felt intimidated or felt I had to do something I wasn’t comfortable with,” Sepulveda told The Advocate about working with Day.
But others, including Kai Braden, came forward when Pall’s story surfaced saying he was assaulted by Day in 2006 when he was 18. He alleges Day pinned him against the wall with his “hand around my neck” and his “mouth to ear.” When Braden started to panic, Day allegedly told him “it was OK, that I should just relax.”
“I remember he asked if I had ever had sex with a guy before, and I told him I had never had sex period,” the model told The Advocate. Day, whose fingers were on Braden’s anus, “seemed to ease off when I told him that.”
The Advocate reached out to Day, requesting comment on the allegations. He was initially interested in meeting in person to talk about the story, but a few hours later, responded with “no comment.”
In the ensuing years, Pall and Day continued to stay in touch — a connection Pall said he maintained largely because he felt pressure to keep a decent relationship for his own sake as a working model.
In November 2008, Pall thought he’d seen a photo of Day’s in Vogue and reached out to inquire about another shoot. “You sure you are ready for another session in front of my camera?” asks Day. “I think so,” says Pall, adding, “I don’t want to do anything nude frontal, but I love the way my pictures came out.”
While Pall says there was repeated sexual harassment by Day at further shoots, the model says he stopped it before they could escalate. Pall adds that since the 2007 shoot, he's done other nude shoots — including on separate occasions with photographers Tony Duran and Marco Ovando — but says he has never done full frontal in an image since that day.
When Pall began uploading YouTube videos revealing the dark side of modeling, he says Day messaged him multiple times to apologize for making him uncomfortable but refused accountability.
In one email obtained by The Advocate, Day asked him to take part in his annual erotic calendar, Castings. “I had seen your video about the modeling industry and thought out of respect I would ask,” Day wrote, adding, “But as I re-watched it I think you were talking a lot about me ... oiling you .... and ‘selling images’ to magazines without your permission.” He continued, “First, you could have oiled yourself but most models are not quite as smart as you ... and you never asked.”A post would later pop up on Shit Model Management — an Instagram account that highlights unhealthy aspects of being a model — asking anyone who’d been harassed by Day to message the account holders. According to emails obtained by The Advocate, Day reached out to Pall soon after the post, accusing him of posting it. “I see what you have done with shit models,” he writes. “And to be honest I [am] glad you are putting this out as I feel like I am being blackmailed as well. I think everything should be out.”
Pall interpreted these emails as threatening, claiming Day’s reference to “everything” includes leaking the 2007 erotic photos he promised to never publish. However, Day followed up with an apology for “misreading” Pall’s lack of consent during the 2007 shoot. He also confirmed, “No matter what happens… I promise your pics will never surface.” Day refused to comment about the messages to The Advocate.
“I never once felt intimidated or felt I had to do something I wasn’t comfortable with,” Sepulveda tells The Advocate about working with Day. “I always felt I could at any moment stop the photo shoot if I wanted, which in my case never happened. One must also understand that some of Rick's most well-known images, his style of photography, are of men generally nude or in very provocative positions. If both parties agree to work with each other and these provocative images are the end goal, then ‘male models’ would already understand what they are signing up for.”
Sepulveda adds, “There is no doubt of Rick Day's genius and talent, but allegations of sexual harassment should never be taken lightly.
I do hope this matter clears up for all parties involved.”
Fashion model Kenneth Guidroz Page, who is signed with Soul Artist Management under Kanner, has lived with Day in his one-bedroom New York City apartment for short periods of time. “I’ve known Rick for some time now and have never heard him saying anything even close to inappropriate to anyone,” he tells The Advocate. Page was tapped by Ben Eskridge, former vice president of the Ralph Lauren men’s advertising division, to be the face of the brand’s fragrance campaign. Eskridge abruptly left Ralph Lauren in December, a month before the Times article on Testino and Weber was published.