Tiffany Haddish Details Falling Out With Stylist Over Oscars Dress

Tiffany Haddish and her past stylist had a minor falling out over the dress she wore to the 2018 Academy Awards.

“This is the story of my Oscar dress — and how I almost knocked a motherf–ker out over it,” Haddish, 44, wrote in her book of essays, titled I Curse You With Joy, which was released on Tuesday, May 7. “I had a stylist — let’s call him Tiddlywinks — I’d worked with for a while, and it was going to be his job to get me red-carpet ready.”

Initially, her stylist — who remained unnamed in the book, but eagle-eyed fans have speculated she’s talking about Bryon Javar — wanted to put her in a custom Brandon Maxwell gown. However, Haddish “had a different dress in mind to wear to the event.”

Following her father’s death in 2017, she traveled to his home country of Eritrea in Africa and purchased what she called “my Eritrean princess dress” by HT Fashion to wear on the Oscars red carpet. The strapless white gown featured gold and black embroidery and was topped with a black capelet featuring matching embellishments.

Haddish and her stylist, who she noted in the book was “already on thin ice” because of a separate incident — went head-to-head over the gown. It seemed that they had finally gotten on the same page, until the day of the Oscars.

“When that stylist came into that room without my dress, I felt like I caught somebody trying to rob me,” Haddish wrote. “My wishes were being disrespected. I was being violated. My hood instincts kicked in. You f–k with my shit, my money, my vision — you try to destroy my soul? I’m gonna come at you.”

Haddish stated that she started “shooting words” at her stylist.

“Three hours later, he comes in with the dress and a funky little attitude. I put it on and saw it had not been taken in,” she wrote. “No alterations had happened whatsoever. … I put that bitch on. It was not a perfect fit, but it was just f—king right.”

Haddish said she was called “beautiful” by people on the carpet and online who praised her for honoring her father and Eritrea. (She wore the custom Brandon Maxwell design to the Vanity Fair Oscars Party that same evening.)

“My stylist came in, all sheepish, and I had no more harsh words for him,” she added, noting that he admitted to being “wrong” in the end.

While Haddish didn’t share what ended up happening with this particular stylist, the actress has experienced more than one falling out with someone in the fashion community. She famously worked with famed stylist Law Roach, but he previously claimed that Haddish “ruined” relationships with some brands when trying to help her get deals.

“Tiffany is very much, ‘Well Law said that this.’ She don’t know how to filter, don’t know how to be slick about it,” Roach, 45, said on Hollywood Unlocked in February 2022. “She’s gonna say what it is. This is a small industry and that gets back. … I’ve, again, ruined a lot of relationships from trying to protect her.”