Karl Lagerfeld has broken through the fourth wall (that would be the one where we don't talk about money, and also the one where we don't disparage Meryl Streep) to talk about money and insult Meryl Streep.
In an interview with fashion bible Women's Wear Daily, the outspoken designer claimed that Streep backed out from wearing a customised Chanel dress to the Oscars this weekend because the luxury fashion house would not pay her to wear it.
In typical Lagerfeld fashion he lamented, "A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?"
Streep has since denied the designer's claim, with her management issuing a statement to The Hollywood Reporter saying it is against her personal ethics to accept payment for wearing gowns to red carpet events.
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The comment comes after the outspoken designer was candid with his thoughts on the actress considered to be our greatest living one (and also our most overrated, depending on whether you're speaking to US President Donald Trump).
Lagerfeld told the reporter a dress was to be created for Streep for the Oscars ceremony this weekend where Streep is up for the best actress gong for Florence Foster Jenkins.
According to Women's Wear Daily, Chanel was commissioned to customise a grey silk gown for Streep from Lagerfeld's latest couture collection. So, pretty much the crème de la crème of dresses.
Lagerfeld had started to sketch the dress when a phone came in from Streep's people who reportedly said, "Don't continue the dress. We found somebody who will pay us."
Paying celebrities to wear their pieces, Lagerfeld noted, is against Chanel's policy. They do, however, gift dresses with Lagerfeld noting "After we gift her a dress that's 100,000 euros [about $137,000], 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."
This isn't the case for other fashion houses. In 2015 Isabel Wilkinson, a senior editor at The Cut interviewed celebrity stylists including Brad Goreski, Jessica Paster and Brandon Maxwell on the not often spoken about financial arrangements between celebrities and fashion.
Stylists are the ones who help fashion brands get their clothes onto celebrities and it's not small change. According to Paster, stylists receive between US$30,000 to $50,000 for these deals, and actresses can receive up to $250,000.
And according to Maxwell, it all feeds into Hollywood's engine room - AKA, show me the money.
"The whole point of an actress having a stylist is so you can make more money, or more people want to hire you, or the brand that you're wearing is making more money because it's driving sales.
"It's all wrapped up in money — it's Hollywood — we're not at church," he said.