Somebody has their hands all over the Material Mom’s unmentionables.
A bag loaded with over $3,000 worth of bras, thongs and other undies was lifted from a Madonna photo shoot last month in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, cops said Friday.
The Queen of Pop posed in the racy lingerie in a March 20 shoot at Highline Stages for Vogue’s Italian magazine for men, L’uomo Vogue. At one point, staff for the shoot’s stylist Arianne Phillips stashed 12 bras valued at $2,545, five thongs worth $345 and four briefs costing $515 in a bag under a chair, they reported to police on April 1. All of the undergarments were on loan from New York-label Deborah Marquit.
“I am at a loss and wish the pieces would be found,” Marquit told the Post. “I am sure there is no one from the shoot that was involved, since nothing like this has ever happened before. [T]here are a lot of people on shoots and maybe whoever found them will return them.”
It wasn’t until the shoot ended around midnight that the stylist’s staff noticed the bag was missing, police said. When they still couldn’t find the bag upon returning to the office, they started to suspect it may have been stolen, according to Esther Matilla, who works for Phillips and filed the original report.
“We checked everywhere,” Matilla told the Post. “We assume that somebody took it — maybe by mistake, but something happened.”
The interns were with the clothes the entire time, she added.
Now Phillips and her team are financially responsible for the missing goods, according to Matilla, who said she will have to pay Deborah Marquit half the value of the lingerie out of her own pocket.
“She has been chasing us like crazy since the very beginning,” Matilla said. “We are desperate; it’s so unfair.”
While Oubiña said they checked with the studio, Highline Stages owner Alina Lundry said no one had contacted them when asked about the claim. “As far as we know, everything went perfectly,” she said.
A day after the shoot Madonna uploaded a photo of herself on Instagram posing in a suit and newsboy cap for the magazine. She made no mention of the alleged theft.
“Working Armani For. L’Uomo Vogue! #artforfreedom,” she wrote.
Marquit’s handmade lingerie is well known in the fashion world and has been featured on the covers of several prominent fashion magazines. Other leading ladies to don the designer’s pricey lingerie include Hilary Swank, Rihanna and Britney Spears.
Madonna’s reps did not respond to requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Natasha Velez