In short: there’s a controversy regarding an interview with Nicola Formichetti (Thierry Mugler’s creative director, Lady Gaga’s stylist) from the August 2011 issue of W Magazine. In the said interview, among other (important, relevant) issues, Nicola said he doesn’t like fat people.
The next day after his quotes went viral on the fashinterwebs, Nicola said he was misquoted. Now W answered also, saying that they went through the audio and the transcripts of the interview and (guess what?) Nicole wasn’t misquoted, he said those exact words expressing his exact feelings about fat people. Refinery also found the below image (at right) in Nicola’s Facebook profile pictures folder. I rest my case. (after the jump, the quotes)
“I was only used to dressing models and skinny kids and I turned up and it was, like, three fat guys. I just left. That was the last time I tried to work with fat people. I think one of them was Ali G’s brother. It was so ghetto. (Nicola Formichetti)
i know i should just leave it but…i really hate when writers just write whatever they want… ‘i dont work with fat people…’ why would someone say such a thing?! (Nicola again)
After double-checking both the print and audio transcript, W firmly stands behind its reporting of its interview with Nicola Formichetti. (W Magazine)”
Yes, Nicola, why would someone say such a thing? (via)
12 comments
Sorry, but through fashion we are told all the time how to be perfect. Be forever young etc. He said it! Soit! So did Ms Wintour: “people that look like little houses in Minnesota”? So NOT Manhattan! And yesterday I read how a very botoxed Tom Ford said something similar about fat people….so what’s the fuzz?
Nicola and his ilk claim they are not vain shallow and petty, but yet the proof is in the pudding per se.
What a bunch of janky jagweeds!
Errrr…..I was ironic but I fail terribly in English…..:(
Ajginger! I understood what you meant, I know you were being ironic/sarcastic. And your English is fine sweetie! : )
mmmm, I don’t know…
I don’t take pacients under 30 for several reasons, including purely personal issues among them. if you can select your work for your personal satisfaction or in order to offer a better ,personalized service to your clients so why not??
In my personal life I do have fat friends (can I say fat without being politically incorrect??) but I don’t have friends under 30 because there is a kind of natural selection (we don’t belong to the same world, our interests are different, its the generation gap.)
if he selects the kind of people he wants to work with, where is the problem? like,the gym besides my house is exclusive for women…
of course if he excludes overweight people from his personal life I would find it absurd ,given he is on the “born this way” bandwagon (which is totally fine and laudable for me , by the way)
There is a big difference in stating with whom one likes to work and being dismissive and hateful to a person or group of people.
Nicola was being dismissive and hateful,and that is just showing how janky and lame one is.
So was Ms Wintour and so was Tom Ford too. To quote him as I read it: “”Americans are too fat. And in London they are starting to get fat too. So I have to say that if we have to talk about race system and nationalism, I find it refreshing that everyone [who is] Chinese is slim”. Right!
Only in London? Not the rest of the UK? It’s a big and beautiful country! It’s so typical as they always speak about my country as being “Amsterdam and coffeeshops” as if we all are high all day?
mdinah, I do not care much about age to be honest. It totally depends on the person and the interaction. I wonder why your work (as I believe it is) make people look younger or keep on looking young and dismiss younger people from your life as friends because of age gaps? Now that is what I find so sad; people want to look younger but can not be really young because of age gaps? Oh irony…..
People are so ignorant of what they were given! I’m so thankful and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing body (not in terms of beauty but in terms of functioning – after four kids, I still can regain my shape and fit in the same jeans I did when I was 20) I couldn’t never ever diss the “fat people” for being like that. I would be stupidly infatuated for something that isn’t 100% in my control. I don’t know how to explain this better, I haven’t really put it in words before, so I will adapt as I go, just let me know if you got anything from what I was trying to say…
Yes, so about Anna Wintour and Tom Ford and so many others who play it snob and think less weight means more cool I think they need a lesson, like children: I say no more than three days of being overweight. And then, when they get their bodies back, I wish I could hear what they have to say about the same matter.
Oh, an mdinah – I can understand the age gap. Indeed, cultural differences can freeze the social relational mechanism. However, I think there’s no sin in that, it would’ve been if you would’ve said that you didn’t take patients under 30s because their skin is too soft and unwrinkled… Or because they don’t have (that much) gray hair.
Fashion people tend to consider that a high fat percentage equals lower intelligence. And that is wrong, narrow-minded and toxic.
mmm, as soon as I finished I knew I was entering turbulent waters.
ellington: I may have read it without enough attention or the portion in the post does not reflect the full context of what he said but I understood him as saying about being unable to deliver a good service due his inexperience with big sizes. But now you said it, I totally see a dismissive tone there.Anyway I am not a fan of his work.
ginger: No, I don’t dismiss people of any kind if they are interesting but I believe there is a natural selection guided by the similarity of interests. I am not interested on what(most of) people under 30 are.
Like I can talk about Gaga as a media/cultural phenomenon for 2 min but I am unable to build a whole conversation(pro or not) about her.Well, I could go on on examples.So, I don’t dismiss them. It just doesn’t happen.
“people want to look younger but can not be really young because of age gaps? Oh irony….”
Well, it depends on which aspect. if young means ‘joie de vivre’ so yes, people want to look and to BE young.
if young translates into inexperience then NO. people want to look young and at same time to be wise( I am talking on my professional experience which may be biased).
“Only in London? Not the rest of the UK?” So it was acceptable if he said people are fat in UK ?The issue is about location or about generalizing on fatness?
I may be wrong here but when I lived in UK ,curiously I found that people are fat/obese/ overweighted (whatever you prefer) mostly in London. When I rarely visited the countryside people really were more thin.But I admit it could be a misperception.
Besides, my experience with fat people may have twisted my view on it. I work with people who are not happy being overweight, it is the reason they come to me, unhappiness.
I am an advocate for thinness in my regular life but I am not fat phobic.As I said I have fat friends and respect their option (if they opted on being that).
Does it make sense?
Sorry for the lenght of it. I don’t have a beautiful rethoric and I tend to personalize my comments. maybe it makes them a bit tedious.
mdinah what you said makes sense and the length of it needed to be, so there is no need to be sorry what so ever! : )
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