Janet Jackson‘s former stylist insisted there was no “wardrobe malfunction” when her breast was exposed during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004.
The 55-year-old pop star’s right breast was famously flashed to the world when Justin Timberlake ripped off part of her top during their performance of “Rock Your Body,” but Wayne Scot Lukas — who dressed Janet for the prestigious event — has insisted he did “exactly what [he] was supposed to do” and nothing went wrong with her outfit, despite the “SexyBack” hitmaker’s explanation at the time.
He told “Access Hollywood”: “I was a work-for-hire. I was hired to do a job. I did exactly what I was supposed to do.
“If I work with someone who’s a dancer, you have to be able to dance in a wardrobe, and it has to never fall apart. My job is to have snaps and pins and velcro so that, even in her quick change, if she forgets to snap something, it stays on. That’s my job.
“I stand 100 percent by my story that I did exactly what I was supposed to do, what I was hired for.”
And the stylist pointed out that he retained his job with Janet for some time after that.
He said: “And if I ever hurt my friend, I wouldn’t have worked with Janet for six years after the Super Bowl. I would’ve been fired that day.”
But Wayne still holds a grudge towards Justin.
He said: “We haven’t spoken since he blamed me. He came off the stage and said, ‘It’s just a little wardrobe malfunction. We all want to give you something to [talk] about.’
“And when he said that, I thought, ‘Friendship over. Friendship over! Wardrobe malfunction? I don’t malfunction. I was a professional stylist, [charging] $10,000 a day back then. I can’t fail! Why did you say that?'”
The stylist also blasted the show’s producers for not cutting away from the moment fast enough or dropping in replacement footage.
He fumed: “You were never supposed to see a movement where a breast was out, a body part was out. It was never supposed to be lingering on something that they say was this terrible thing for such a long time. They were supposed to cut to black. You were supposed to get the idea of ‘I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song.’ Nobody was supposed to be naked.
“Somebody didn’t push the button. Somebody didn’t protect my friend. No one knows this. You ready for this? When you do the Super Bowl [halftime show], this is the secret, you shoot it twice.”
“You shoot the performance twice because the first time you shoot it, you shoot it in case the satellite goes down and they have to cut to the original rehearsal. So they had a second performance that the minute that happened, they could’ve pushed the button and cut to the tape. And they didn’t.”
However, Salli Frattini, who worked on the halftime show, denied his claims.
Salli said: “This is a false statement as per all of my comments previously written and now broadcast.”
The incident and its fallout is the subject of the new New York Times Presents documentary Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson.
