Melissa McCarthy: No One Would Make a Dress for Me

For the Oscars a few years ago
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2014 10:44 AM CDT
Melissa McCarthy: No One Would Make a Dress for Me
Melissa McCarthy arrives before the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Melissa McCarthy may be wildly popular—but, as she explains to Redbook, that doesn't mean she has a lot of success in the shopping arena. "When I go shopping, most of the time I’m disappointed," she says. "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." It's not the first time she's talked about similar woes; in 2011, she noted that outfits in her size are typically "either for like a 98-year-old woman or a 14-year-old hooker, and there is nothing in the middle," which is why she started her own fashion line; she and couture dress maker Daniella Pearl are releasing a line called Pearl.

As the Washington Post notes, other actresses who don't fit the "size 0" mold (and thus may have trouble fitting in sample sizes) have faced similar problems. Christina Hendricks noted in 2010, "It is difficult come awards season, and I need to find a gown to walk down the red carpet in, and there are only size zeros and size twos available. Then it becomes downright annoying because all these designers are saying, 'We love Mad Men, we love Christina, but we won’t make her a dress.'" Typically, writes Soraya Nadia McDonald for the Post, "Even D-list straight-size celebrities can find houses to loan them clothes ... but for women like Hendricks and McCarthy, Emmy and Oscar nods aren’t enough. It takes years and years of success." (More Melissa McCarthy stories.)

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