Several Designers Refused to Make Melissa McCarthy an Oscar Dress

One might think that designers would be falling all over themselves to dress a fan-favorite actress pretty much guaranteed to get red-carpet screen time and post-show magazine coverage. Apparently not! Two Oscars ago, Melissa McCarthy asked “five or six” designers to make her a dress—and they refused.

I dearly wish she’d name names, so they never get a dime out of me.

McCarthy appears in Redbook this month. She’s been talking about launching a line of plus-size clothing for years, and she explained her motives like so:

“Two Oscars ago, I couldn’t find anybody to do a dress for me. I asked five or six designers—very high-level ones who make lots of dresses for people—and they all said no.”

That would have been well after McCarthy’s break-out performance in Bridesmaids, so she was certainly famous enough. Eventually, she found designer Daniela Kurrle, who made her dress for this year’s Golden Globes and several others. “And you know what? I have the most fun doing that, anyway,” she added.

Remember this the next time someone in the fashion business spouts a bunch of nonsense about why they won’t start a plus-size line. “The shapes are different!” “We don’t know what the market is!” Bullshit. A bona-fide movie star rolls up to a bunch of designers and they can’t even be bothered to whip something together? You’re not putting a man on the fucking moon, here.

It’s not like this is just a red-carpet problem, either. From the full print version:

I don’t understand why if you’re a certain size, designers think your taste level goes down and you have less money to spend. The quality and construction is often so bad. Finding a great t-shirt or a great cigarette pant in a good fabric is next to impossible. Plus-size clothes are often really cheap and either look young or incredibly old.

Preach. These days there’s so many more options for plus-sized teens, and that’s great. But good luck finding the perfect blazer.

Frankly, if I were McCarthy, I would have said screw ’em all right out of the gate, gone straight to some indie plus-size designer and made her damn career.