Celebrity fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has claimed that Hollywood icon Meryl Streep wanted to be paid to wear one of his Chanel dresses to the 2017 Academy Awards.
In an interview to Women’s Wear Daily, Lagerfeld, who is the head designer and creative director of Chanel, said he had been working on a design for the 67-year-old actress and according to him she decided to pull out of the agreement over money.
“I made a sketch, and we started to make the dress (but then I get a phone call from her team a few days later which said): ‘Don’t continue the dress. We found somebody who will pay us.’ After we gift her a dress that’s 100,000 euros, we found later we had to pay (for her to wear it). We give them dresses, we make the dresses, but we don’t pay.
“A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?” Lagerfeld said.
However, Chanel has issued a statement to Refinery29 backtracking from Lagerfeld’s comments.
The fashion house clarified that “no mention of the reason” for Streep’s decision to wear a dress from a different designer was given.
“Chanel engaged in conversations with Ms Streep’s stylist to design a dress for her to wear to the Academy Awards, with the full understanding that she was considering options from other design houses.
“When informed by the stylist that Ms. Streep had chosen a dress by another designer there was no mention of the reason. Chanel wishes to express our continued and deep respect for Ms Streep,” the statement read.
A representative for Streep has said that the designers comments are “completely untrue.”
“The WWD story is a completely untrue story. Ms. Streep would never wear anything in exchange for payment,” the publicist said.
