American designer and filmmaker Tom Ford was one of the trending topics on Twitter this week, but not for something he has actually done.
A tweet claiming that he refused to dress US First Lady Melania Trump and called her a "glorified escort" went viral on the Internet on Tuesday, but the star designer quickly denied making any such statements.
"Tom Ford refuses to dress Melania Trump: "I have no interest in dressing a glorified escort who steals speeches and has bad taste in men," the tweet at the centre of the controversy read.
The statement was shared through an anonymous Twitter account, having garnered more than 3,000 retweets and 13,000 likes, reports The Washington Post.
"This is an absolutely fabricated and completely fake quote that somehow went viral. Mr Ford did not make this statement; it is completely false," a spokeswoman for the top-notch designer said.
The Twitter account apologised and removed the tweet. "My sincere apologies for the Tom Ford post I posted," it said.
In a 2016 interview, Mr Ford had said that he believed the first lady should wear American and affordable clothes -- and his clothes were neither of those things.
Tom Ford was named as the new chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America this week.
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