Dirty Luxury

PeeGate, Dorit’s million-dollar wardrobe audit, the latest on Riccardo Tisci, and Audemars Piguet’s ugly racial gatekeeping

Hello, hello, hello ! Happy Monday from a very gray Paris. Our delightful early summer seems to had plans elsewhere. I however just got back from the Byredo store on rue Saint Honore where the brand hosted us to discover the Bal d'Afrique Absolu fragrance as well as the brand’s homewear, ready to wear (I had no clue ), high jewelry (they’re selling $32,000 necklaces!!! ) and beauty and skincare. They showed us the gifting they give to the brand’s top clients and of course me being nosy and always in rich people’s business asked how much some of the top clients are spending a year at the brand on perfume. That number is $15,000. I mean I guess there are worse things one could be spending 5 figures a year to inhale. Anyways there’s a lot going on rn in fashion so i’m going to catch you up on everything you might have missed over the weekend starting with…..

ANOK YAI VS. THE WASHINGTON POST

Last weekend, The Washington Post implied that supermodel Anok Yai pissed herself at the 2024 Met Gala. They didn’t use those words, but that was the story they were telling, and she was not having it.

It started with a May 4 piece by writer Maura Judkis titled “How do stars pee at the Met Gala? An investigation.” Harmless enough concept, obvious engagement bait. Judkis spoke to celebrity stylist Mickey Freeman, who shared an anonymous anecdote about a client he had sewn into an elaborate sheer mesh jumpsuit covered in hand-stitched Swarovski crystals and pearls after the zipper broke before the event. Later that evening, the client allegedly couldn’t make it to a bathroom in time, tore a hole in the gown, and handled the situation. Freeman didn’t name her but The Post, however, decided to play detective.

Their methodology, which they cheerfully described in the piece as “Detective Google”, landed on Anok Yai’s crystal-covered blue ombre tulle jumpsuit from the 2024 Gala as the match and they published her name without a confirmation from Freeman, or a comment from Anok or her team and suddenly one of the most prominent Black models working today was being implicitly linked to a story about destroying a couture piece to urinate at the Met Gala.

Anok Yai at the 2024 Met Gala

Anok posted on Instagram tagging both the paper and Judkis directly: “I usually stay quiet and keep to myself but @washingtonpost @maurajudkis HOW DARE YOU MISALIGN MY CHARACTER AND IMPLY THAT I RIPPED MY OUTFIT AND PEED ON MYSELF DURING THE MET GALA OF 2024! FACT CHECK NEXT TIME! ARE YOU CRAZY?! If you find any photos of my outfit ripped or urine dripping down my leg, send it to me.”

Freeman responded the same day: “Nope! It was not Queen @anokyai.” He made clear he has never worked with her, called the whole thing a “hilarious non-story,” and confirmed she was not his client. The Post quietly scrubbed her name and added a correction at the bottom: “A previous version of this story included the name of a model wearing an outfit that matched Mickey Freeman’s description. On Sunday, Freeman said he did not work with this model. Her name has been removed.” Maura Judkis then made her Instagram private.

A lot of people online went in on both the paper and the writer, and the racial dimension of it is hard to ignore. Anok has been openly vocal about racism in the fashion industry throughout her career, and the idea that a major national newspaper casually linked her name to a degrading and completely unverified rumor with Google Images as their sourcing is not nothing. The correction appearing only after she publicly called them out makes it worse.

Now I decided to do some research of my own and go through Mickey Freeman’s Instagram, all the way back to 2012. He is an enthusiastic poster to say the least. Every client, every editorial placement, every bit of press he generates for himself or the people he works with gets documented. The only Met Gala client visible anywhere on his feed is Cody Renard Richard at the 2025 Gala, which Freeman described as his first. There is nothing from 2024 or before. No behind-the-scenes, no red carpet moment, no proud stylist caption, no trace of any client in any elaborate jumpsuit at any Met Gala at all. Which raises a pretty obvious question to me about whether this anecdote was possibly embellished or entirely fabricated for the sake of having a Washington Post mention.

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after the jump I get into the racial component of the Audemars Piguet x Swatch discourse, an update on the Riccardo Tisci sexual assault case, Dorit Kemsley’s designer disaster, and the fashion icon that’s headed to jail.

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