While there's no Met Gala this year, there is, thankfully, Vogue's oral history of the cultural spectacular. And while the stories of guests smoking in the bathroom are legendary and the fashions take center stage, creative digital director Sally Singer explained that Jessica Simpson managed to fall victim to wardrobe malfunctions on two separate occasions.
Back at 2007's "Poiret: King of Fashion" exhibit, Singer explained that Simpson's gown, an intricately embroidered silver halter dress by Roberto Cavalli, couldn't keep everything in place. The editor said that on the red carpet, Simpson's breasts "maybe fell out" and during the night's dinner, things just got worse.
"At dinner, it was suddenly like, whoa, Jessica Simpson's breasts are across from me at the dinner table and they are on a platter and I'm looking at them," Singer wrote. "And John Mayer was putting his hands on them at the dinner table. He kind of reached down and I just remember thinking, 'Oh, celebrities, feel free to play here. That's what's going on.'"
Before that, at 2005's "The House of Chanel" gala, designer Michael Kors shared his experience with another of Simpson's wardrobe malfunctions and another anecdote about just how cool those bathroom parties-within-a-party really were.
Kors explained that he noticed that Simpson had stepped away for a little longer than necessary and when he went to look for her in the restroom, he found her and the revelry that he'd always heard about.
"I went with Jessica Simpson one year and she went to the ladies' room and she seemed to be gone from the table for quite a while," Kors said. "So I got a little nervous and I was hoping she was okay. And I went to the ladies' room, which always was the best party at the Met Gala, especially during the early 2000s."
When he managed to find her, he said that the zipper on her dress didn't work and he had to sew her up on the spot to get her back out to the party — though staying there at the other party doesn't seem so bad.
"I opened the door, and it was basically a full party going on and I didn't see her," he finished. "She was in a stall because her zipper broke and she actually couldn’t close her dress. So we got a needle and thread and we sewed her back into the dress!"
After the story went live, Simpson posted a response on her Instagram, saying that Singer's recollection of her breasts as "inaccurate."
"Feeling a little like Jayne Mansfield after reading this (inaccurate!) oral history of the #MetBall where I am body shamed by #SallySinger. But in all seriousness I have persevered through shaming my own body and internalizing the world’s opinions about it for my entire adult life," she wrote. "To read this much anticipated article about the classiest fashion event there is and have to be shamed by another woman for having boobs in 2020 is nauseating."
