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"I'm not my body. I'm a whole person." —Gabourey Sidibe
Like Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, teams of designers and stylists transform the celebrities who walk the red carpet into the most glamorous versions of themselves. Most of the time, the outfits they wear on the red carpet are loaned to them by the designers who created them.
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But not every celeb is treated equally. Like the Wicked Stepmother, some designers refuse to dress certain celebs, and most often, it's because they don't fit "sample sizes." However, those celebs often call out those designers — and rightfully so!
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Here are 19 times celebrities called out the designers who refused to dress them:
1. Earlier in her career, a design house told Sheryl Lee Ralph that she was "not the body that they wanted to dress, with its vulgar in and outs." To this day, she refuses to wear anything from the brand.
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She told the Hollywood Reporter, "I'm sure they've changed since then, but that's what they said...The positive is that now, we have body positivity, and people are more accepting of different shapes and bodies. I look at it this way —if my body is vulgar, so [is] Kim Kardashian's, so [is] Beyonce's, and so are many others who have curves and the ins and the outs."
2. When Beyoncé received the Fashion Icon Award at the 2016 CFDA Awards, she said that high-end labels refused to dress Destiny's Child at the beginning of their careers because they "didn’t really want to dress four Black, country, curvy girls."
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Since they couldn't yet afford to buy their own designer outfits, Beyoncé's mother and uncle made all of the group's costumes from scratch. She said, "[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."
3. Gabourey Sidibe bought her own dress from Torrid for her first major red carpet event in Cannes because designers decided she was "too fat" for them to dress.
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She told Teen Vogue, "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."
4. In 2020, Jonah Hill pointed out that it was challenging for him to develop a personal sense of style because "clothes aren't made for people who are overweight to have style."
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He told GQ, "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."
5. Many designers refused to dress Bebe Rexha for the 2019 Grammy Awards because she didn't fit a runway size, so in an Instagram video, she said, "If a size 6/8 is 'too big'...then I don't wanna wear your f*cking dresses."
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She captioned the video, "My size 8 ass is still going to the Grammys."
After her post, many A-list designers reached out to the Grammy nominee, and she attended the event in a rufflyMonsoori gown.
6. While gearing up for the premiere of Ghostbusters (2016), Leslie Jones tweeted, "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
In response, designerChristian Sirianostepped up to the plate. On Twitter, he said, "It shouldn’t be exceptional to work with brilliant people just because they’re not sample size."
However, Leslie added, "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. Even after she was voted the "Sexiest Woman Alive" by Esquire in 2012, "not one designer in town" would loan Christina Hendricks a dress. She said, "They only lend out a size 0 or 2."
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She told the Daily Record, "So I'm still struggling for someone to give me a darn dress!"
8. After multiple designer brands denied Rachel Bloom's request for a dress, she purchased her own Gucci gown off the rack and wore it to the 2017 Emmys.
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She told E!, "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 0,' but also, I can afford it, so it's okay."
9. In a 2019 essay for the Guardian, Jane Seymour wrote that, after being a glamour icon and "unofficial muse" in the '80s and '90s, "nowadays not every designer will dress someone [her] age."
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She continued, "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."
10. Melissa McCarthy asked five or six high-profile designers to make her a dress for the 2012 Oscars but was consistently turned down, so two years later, she started her own line of plus-size clothing.
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Clothing design isn't too far out of field for Melissa, who studiedclothing and textiles in college. She previously designed her own dress for the 2011 Emmy Awards with the help of her friend, Daniella Pearl, who also collaborated with her on the fashion line.
11. In 2011, Jennifer Hudson called out the designers who only wanted to dress her after she lost weight and said that "so many more opportunities open up when you’re on the other side."
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She told the Daily Mail, "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!"
12. On the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival red carpet, Octavia Spencer informed reporters that "no designers are coming to [her]" for the upcoming Golden Globes because she's "just a short, chubby girl."
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She said, "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."
However, she won Best Supporting Actress while wearing a custom Tadashi Shoji gown, and people adored her look so much that the designer added it to his spring collection.
13. During a cover shoot following her weight loss in 2016, Khloé Kardashian pointed out that she "would never have options for clothing" at photo shoots previously.
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She told Harper's Bazaar, "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."
14. Bryce Dallas Howard went to a department store and bought her own dress for the 2016 Golden Globes because she likes "having lots of options for a size 6 as opposed to maybe one option."
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She told E!, "I just picked it up at Neiman's this week."
15. Ashley Graham made it known that she couldn't attend the 2016 Met Gala because she "couldn’t get a designer to dress [her]."
Sean Zanni / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
She told the Cut, "You can’t just show up in jeans and a T-shirt.”
16. On Twitter, Amber Riley pointed out that, because of the limited options available, she risked seeing other plus-sized celebrities "in the same sh*t" on the red carpet.
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"We can't win," she added.
17. Tom Ford refused to dress Hayden Panettiere for the 2014 Golden Globes because he was only dressing one actor for the event, so she purchased her own Tom Ford dress.
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Shetold People, "It’s like buying a piece of art."
Despite the criticism she faced, Tom Ford sent her flowers and a sweet note approving of her decision.
18. After "Bodak Yellow" went big, requests from Cardi B's stylist were rejected "by both high-end designers and Instagram boutiques" because she was "not the It girl," but Cardi said she didn't take it personally.
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She told Teen Vogue, "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."
19. And finally, before the 2019 Emmys, Aidy Bryant tweeted that having cool clothes as a plus-sized person "seems like a fairly basic request."
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In response, Eloquii fitted her for a custom gown.
She told People, "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.”
