Saturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones was dragged by stylists who say she is to blame if designers don’t want to work with her.
Jones took to Twitter.com on Tuesday to complain bitterly about fashion designers refusing to dress her for Ghostbusters movie premieres.
Jones tweeted:
“It’s so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me with a premiere dress for movie. Hmmm that will change and I remember everything.”
Then on Wednesday she tweeted:
“Hmm what a difference a tweet makes. Should I name the designers that didn’t look out? Put y’all ass on blast. You will not get my love later.”
But stylist Jessica Paster blamed the 48-year-old comedian for not giving designers enough time to work their magic.
“This is nobody’s fault except Leslie’s,” Paster told Pret-a-Porter.com. “She should have known four to five months ago the date of premiere, and said, ‘I’m not a sample size, I need to go to designers early or buy myself a dress.’ Don’t be blaming designers and saying they don’t like you.”
Also speaking out was stylist Jeanne Yang who gave an economics seminar on the financial hardship of designing a one-off dress for a big-boned woman:
“When you’re a designer, sitting with your accountant, you have to think about how much it costs to create a sample,” said Yang. “It may take hours to do a muslin, and thousands of dollars to create one specific piece. You justify it because you use it for so many things.”
Yang said designers often do not have the luxury of designing one-off dresses that they can’t use again.
“One dress has to serve for the runway show, for sales, and to get publicity. If you have a sample that has to fit a model, you don’t have the option of creating things for premieres,” she said.
“No one ever does a variety of sizes. No one has those resources, even the biggest designers don’t. For something as big as the Oscars or when you are given enough time, designers may lay out the expense of creating something. But then, a lot of designers who do go through the trouble to create things, and spend the money and time, sometimes they take a gamble then the client says they don’t like it. Then you’ve spent $5,000 to $10,000 for a dress that’s not worn. It can be the death of a line.”
Within 30 minutes of Jones’ initial tweet, fashion designer Christian Siriano raised his hand in an emoji tweet to offer to make a dress for Jones.
The 30-year-old, openly gay Project Runway winner is the go-to designer for women of all body shapes.
He recently collaborated with Lane Bryant on a plus-size collection featuring Orange Is the New Black actress Danielle Brooks.
But Jones doesn’t seem very eager to take Siriano up on his offer. He’s still waiting for her to show up for a fitting.
“I love Leslie and I’m a huge fan of her work,” Siriano said via email on Wednesday. “I can’t wait to create something special for her to wear. Hopefully I will see her in my studio this week to make something new and exciting for her to wear. I support all women no matter age or size!”
Photos: Project Runway; Callahan/ACE/INF
