23 Times Designers Snobbed Celebs Because They Didn't Fit Their Ideal Image And Were Gloriously Called Out For It
They got what they asked for and what they didn't ask for, too.
When you're rich or famous or both, it's part of your job to have the right outfit to wear almost everywhere whether that's the red carpet, a magazine cover shoot, or a press conference. And generally, celebs don't make their own clothes for the event.
For one, they don't have the time to do all that. Two, why do that when they have tons of designers out there who they can borrow gorgeous clothing from?
This not only benefits the celeb but also does great for the designer. Who doesn't want their work to be worn down on the red carpet by someone famous, right?
Unfortunately, not every celeb gets the same open-armed welcome from every designer out there. In fact, there's a lot of fashion snobbery that goes on.
Some designers flat out refuse to dress a celeb because they're not famous enough for their name. On the other hand, others refuse to lend someone their clothes because of their age, body size, or race.
Fortunately, celebs nowadays aren't afraid to call out these designers no matter how big their names are. They want the world to know what goes on behind those glamorous red carpet events and they're not going to stop until they make a change.
Here are 23 celebs and stylists who called out designers who refused to work with them based on biased reasons.
1. Zendaya
When Zendaya and her stylist Law Roach first started working together, "a lot of the houses weren't dressing Black girls." So they changed tactics and went to up-and-coming designers instead.
Amy Sussman / Getty Images"Zendaya made it to the cover of Vogue, [and] she had never worn Valentino, Gucci, or Chanel... We built that girl’s career and my career using smaller brands and emerging designers to prove a point. Now that they want to dress her, I say no," Roach told the Hollywood Reporter.
David Livingston / Getty Images2. Danielle Brooks
Danielle said that it doesn't matter how many Grammy wins, Tony nominations, or SAG awards she has. A lot of people just flat out refused to dress her because she doesn't fit into their beloved "sample size."
John Lamparski / Getty Images
"I haven’t been given an opportunity to wear these big-name designers, it has never been an option whether I had a stylist or didn’t," she said.
Leon Bennett / Getty Images for the Critics Choice Association
3. Kristen Stewart
When Kristen was younger, her longtime stylist Tara Swennen called Lanvin every two months for seven long years asking them to dress up the star but the brand kept refusing. Why?
They thought she was too young for the brand.
"Listen, our demo to sell these clothes is closer to the 30s, so she’s not what we want quite yet," they said each and every time.
Tommaso Boddi / Via Getty
Then when the brand finally decided to say yes, the tables turned. "Finally, it was like the clouds opened up, and we got it, and [Stewart] was like, ‘Nah,'" Swennen said.
Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
4. Jane Seymour
In an essay she wrote for Guardian in 2019, Jane said that while she was a glamour icon and unofficial muse in the 80s and 90s, the designers who want to dress her today are few just because of her age.
Rodin Eckenroth / WireImage / Via Getty
"I don’t care whether re-wearing clothes is acceptable or not – if I’m feeling the dress and the occasion, and if it fits, then I’ll wear it again," she said in dealing with that situation.
Jason Merritt / Getty Images for NARAS
5. Aidy Bryant
Before she graced the 2019 Emmys, Aidy tweeted that having cool clothes in the plus-person size area "seems like a fairly basic request." And she's right.
Not every designer understands that though.
Dan Macmedan / WireImage / Via Getty
Fortunately, Eloquii understood where she was coming from and fitted her for a custom gown.
"I think it’s a different experience for plus-size women in film and television to get clothes for events. It’s just not as welcoming for us to get cool clothes that are, like, equal in glamour, in style to what, I am going to say, ‘small size’ costars get to wear. ... So to have this experience where they approached me and it’s not us begging them … and they’ve been like, ‘Let’s make this special.’ It’s been very glamorous to me in ways I maybe haven’t experienced before," Aidy said about the experience.
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
6. Leslie Jones
While she was preparing for the premiere of "Ghostbusters" (2016), Leslie tweeted out, "It’s so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me... Hmm, that will change, and I remember everything.”
Gregg Deguire / WireImage / Via Getty
Thankfully, designer Christian Siriano stepped up to do what other designers won't. And on Twitter, he said, "It shouldn’t be exceptional to work with brilliant people just because they’re not sample size."
Later on, Leslie added a little fire to her tweets saying, "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.”
7. Dascha Polanco
When Dascha had her publicist reach out to a brand she adored and spent plenty of her own money from, this was the reply she got, "You’re not the sizes we have, not right now, maybe in the future."
Theo Wargo / Getty Images
Now, they've lost the love of the star. "Now even if they want me to [wear their designs] down the road, I will not give them the pleasure. It's disappointing, but I try to work with up-and-coming designers who will make things for me and who will collaborate with me," Dascha said.
8. Melissa McCarthy
Melissa carefully chose the five or six high-profile designers she asked to make her a gown for the 2012 Oscars but she was simply disappointed by each and every one. Because of this, Melissa was motivated to start her own clothing line and two years later, she had her own line of plus-size clothing.
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It was the perfect fit as well since making clothing wasn't too far off for Melissa who studied clothing and textiles in college. She also designer her own dress for the 2011 Emmy Awards.
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9. Jennifer Hudson
In 2011, Jennifer bravely called out all the designers who approached her only after she lost weight. "So many more opportunities open up when you’re on the other side," she said.
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"I’d no idea what I was missing out on. It’s like a whole other world. Suddenly every designer wants to dress you. It’s like, 'You look amazing! Please, choose a dress. Have a bag. And what about shoes?' I mean, wow!" she said.
Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery
10. Octavia Spencer
In the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival, Octavia bravely admitted that she has had no designers coming to her for the upcoming Golden Globes despite her fame and success just because she's a "short, chubby girl."
Steve Granitz / WireImage / Via Getty
"It’s hard for me to find a dress to wear to something like this! It’s a lot of pressure, I’ll tell ya," she said.
However, when she wore a custom Tadashi Shoji gown when she won Best Supporting Actress, people loved the look so much that the designer added it to his spring collection.
Steve Granitz / WireImage / Via Getty
11. Megan Mullally
In 2019, it was announced that Megan Mullally will be hosting the 2019 SAG awards. However, that wasn't enough to have designers come knocking at her door.
"Looks like I will be buying my dress online though, as per my usual, even though there is literally a 100 percent chance that I will be on camera, because I’M HOSTING IT," she said.
David Crotty / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
"Designers do not send me dresses. I’m online scrolling through the gowns sections of various websites — which I know how to do pretty well at this point," she continued.
In the end, she ended up buying herself a beautiful Alexander McQueen dress.
Dan Macmedan / Getty Images
12. Ashley Graham
Ashley was supposed to attend the 2016 Met Gala but she made known that the reason behind her absence was that she "couldn’t get a designer to dress [her]."
Sean Zanni / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
"You can’t just show up in jeans and a T-shirt," she told the Cut.
13. Beyonce
Believe it or not, many designers and labels actually refused to dress the queen herself Queen Bey but at the beginning of her career when she was still with Destiny's Child. When Bey received the Fashion Icon Award at the 2016 CFDA Awards, she revealed that they were refused because designers and labels "didn’t really want to dress four Black, country, curvy girls."
Kirby Lee / WireImage / Via Getty
Since the group couldn't afford to buy their own designer outfits yet, Beyonce's mother and uncle made all their costumes from scratch.
"[They put] so much passion and love into every small detail. When I wore these clothes, I felt like Khaleesi. I had an extra suit of armor. It was so much deeper than any brand name," Beyonce said.
Kevin Mazur / WireImage / Via Getty
14. Gabourey Sidibe
For her first major red carpet in Cannes, Gabourey bought her very own dress from Torrid because designers decided she was "too fat" to dress.
Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images
"Even though we are moving towards more visibility for plus-size people, there is a lot [of] pushback. So it’s important to keep fighting [and] to keep being visible until the conversation changes and [it] is no longer about our bodies because I'm not my body. I'm a whole person," she told Teen Vogue.
Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images for Bottomless Closet
15. Jonah Hill
In 2020, Jonah revealed that he's having difficulties developing his personal sense of style because of how limited the available clothing that has style is for overweight people.
Brian Dowling / Getty Images
"For me, that was a big turning point of realizing: okay, be yourself. You don't have to be anything you don't want to be. And if you're really interested in fashion, then you should be, don't push that away. Lean into it," he said.
Matthias Nareyek / Getty Images
Bebe Rexha
For the 2019 Grammy Awards, Bebe Rexha had a hard time finding a designer that would dress her because she didn't fit a runway size. And in an Instagram video, she called out the designers who refused for that reason saying, "If a size 6/8 is 'too big'...then I don't wanna wear your fucking dresses."
Steve Granitz / WireImage / Via Getty
After her video went viral, many A-list designers reached out to her. She ended up attending the event in a ruffled Monsoori gown.
Dan Macmedan / Getty Images
17. Rachel Bloom
After one designer after another denied Rachel's request for a dress, she decided to buy her own dress from Gucci off the rack and wear it to the 2017 Emmys.
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"I've said in an interview before, 'Oh, sometimes it's hard for places to lend me dresses because I'm not, like, a size zero,' but also, I can afford it, so it's okay," she said.
Paul Archuleta / FilmMagic / Via Getty
Amber Riley
On Twitter, Amber pointed out that since there were very limited options available for plus-size celebrities, she risked seeing them in the same stuff on the red carpet.
Jesse Grant / Via Getty
"We can't win," she said, laying out the harsh truth for that moment.
Paras Griffin / Getty Images for Black Music Honors
19. Khloe Kardashian
During a cover shoot after her weight loss in 2016, Khloe revealed that she "would never have options for clothing" in previous photo shoots.
Roy Rochlin / FilmMagic / Via Getty
"There would always be this attention on Kourtney and Kim, but I was too much work for [stylists] or they had nothing in my size," she told Harper's Bazaar.
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
20. Bryce Dallas Howard
Believe it or not, Bryce got her 2016 Golden Globes dress from a department store. And it's because she likes "having lots of options for a size 6 as opposed to maybe one option."
Steve Granitz / WireImage / Via Getty
"I just picked it up at Neiman's this week," she merrily told E!.
21. Cardi B
Even after "Bodak Yellow" went big, many high-end designers and Instagram boutiques refused to dress Cardi because she wasn't the "It girl." Fortunately for them, the star didn't take it personally.
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"I'm not going to turn down an opportunity because they don't want to let me in, or they just don't like me in their clothes, period," she told Teen Vogue.
Todd Williamson / NBCUniversal / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
22. Hayden Panettiere
For the 2014 Golden Globes, Tom Ford refused to dress Hayden because he made a commitment to only dress one actor for the event. So what did Hayden do?
She bought her own Tom Ford dress.
Steve Granitz / WireImage / Via Getty
"It’s like buying a piece of art," she said. And despite the criticism, Tom Ford sent her flowers a sweet note of approval for her decision.
Steve Granitz / WireImage / Via Getty
23. Christina Hendricks
Christina was voted the "Sexiest Woman Alive" in 2012 by Esquire, however, not one designer would loan her a dress. "They only lend out a size 0 or 2," she said.
Dave Hogan / Getty Images
"So I'm still struggling for someone to give me a darn dress!" she told the Daily Record.
Steve Granitz / FilmMagic / Via Getty
As proven by these celebs, the world of fashion is still a bit slow when it comes to catching up with modern updates. They still have quite a way to go through given that they still need to actually be called out before they straighten out their mistakes.
Hopefully, they'll catch up a little bit faster so more people can actually enjoy their work.
