Meryl Streep Won’t Be Wearing Chanel to the Oscars

While most designers would drop everything to dress Meryl Streep, count Karl Lagerfeld out.

According to Chanel’s head designer and creative director, the actress was enamored with a gray silk gown from the brand’s most recent couture collection and wanted to wear it to the Oscars on Sunday night, just with a few adjustments, including a higher neckline.

As Women’s Wear Daily reports, the alteration was set to be made and the atelier got to work to have the dress ready for the ceremony. Yet before the piece could be shipped off from Paris to Hollywood, Streep’s camp reportedly backed out.

“‘Don’t continue the dress. We found somebody who will pay us,’” Lagerfeld said a representative for Streep told him.

Streep’s camp, however, strongly denied Lagerfeld’s account in an email to Yahoo Style, saying that “Ms. Streep would never wear anything in exchange for payment of any kind. It is against her ethics and simply is not true.” Streep is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Florence Foster Jenkins.

According to Lagerfeld, Chanel has a firm policy of not paying celebrities — no matter who they are or what the occasion is. “After we gift her a dress that’s 100,000 euros [$106,095], 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,” he said.

Lagerfeld told WWD that he wasn’t too happy with the situation: “A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?” However, the decades-long designer said the actress could keep the dress if she wanted to “because of the size.” He added, “It’s couture. It’s perfect for her.”

Yahoo Style has reached out to Chanel for further comment.

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