It started at the beginning of 2008, when I was only sixteen years old.
I met Marc Jacobs at a gym in Paris. He noticed how special my style was from the moment we first met. He invited me to his Louis Vuitton fashion show and the dinner after. He has been stalking me since then.
He promised he would make the biggest top model out of me, saying he could sell anything with my face. He said I was the first woman he fell in love with (!). He enticed me with me talk of a top-model career. I believed his every word! While I didn’t want to be a model, but a fashion designer, I couldn’t help but be seduced by the promises of such a powerful fashion designer.
Sitting 2nd row at the Louis Vuitton show with Marc's best friend and trainer, Easy
with Marc's other best friend: Niko
Niko with Lorenzo Martone Niko with Marc Jacobs
In the summer of 2008 Marc invited me to his office. He did a private casting, only for me, and he took my measurements personally. This is almost unheard of in the fashion world, so again, I thought it was evidence of his intentions for me.
This meeting at his office was mentioned in New Yorker Magazine’s September 2008 edition. Click here, to read the article.
For two years we spoke for hours a day, every day. Jacobs wanted to know everything about me. He became obsessed with my personality and the unique style I represent. Katie Grand (stylist at many big brand, Marc's best friend) said in an interview that the design team had to listen to MY Cher compilation CD for 2 weeks while they were designing the LV collections. Marc was wearing high heels and a dress and walking around the room acting like he was Angel Barta!! That is obsession.
Jacobs said my energy was vital for him. He told me he needed me because with my talent he could be the new Picasso. He said he would write his name on fashion history with golden letters! He copied my photos in his campaigns and replaced his long-time photographers with MY favorite photographer Steven Meisel. Since 2008 Meisel has shot all of his Louis Vuitton campaigns.
Jacobs copied my style without my permission for his fashion shows: Louis Vuitton Spring 2009, Marc Jacobs Spring 2009, Louis Vuitton Fall 2009, Marc Jacobs Fall 2009. Each was a huge success! Jacobs became addicted to the success my fashion brought him.
He told me he loved me. He said the next time he designed he would tell the fashion world about the role of my designs in his work. He told me he would make the biggest fashion designer out of me and we would work together officially. I believed that he would enable me to work in the fashion industry. I’ve never received anything for my ideas but nice words and empty promises.
A few examples on how Jacobs copied my ideas for his own line.
He copied my ideas for Dior as well
He copied my photos once for Dior and once for the Marc Jacobs campaign
Jacobs kept torturing me by saying he loved me, sending me love messages, poems, he wrote love songs and asked famous singers to sing them. He made singers (i.e. Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Taylor Swift) wear the clothes he designed based on my stuff.
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Lady Gaga with Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs with Angel Barta |
After several seasons of this, I realized that MJ was just using my talent for his own success. I noticed that he hacked my cell phone. He read all my text messages, emails, and he was even checking my Facebook account! He contacted my friends from fake accounts and sent them perverse messages.
By the end of 2009, I recognized that he had never loved me. I told Marc:
"I am deeply disappointed. You lied to me! You only wanted my ideas for your own success. You knew it from the beginning that you would never help me. You’d already planned that you would only fool me and use my talent and hide me from the fashion world… so no one would know that your successful collections were MY ideas, that the style originally came from me! I never want to talk to you again! I will not give you my ideas anymore! Forget me … forever!!!!"
So from 2010, I consciously withheld my ideas from him.
I wanted to cut him out of my life. He kept calling me, texting me, but I never answered. I stopped giving him photos. I wanted to forget him, but he refused to leave me alone. He wrote me every day, saying he would KILL HIMSELF if I didn't answer!
Jacobs did not want to let me or my ideas go. He did not accept the fact that I wanted to break up with him. He became more and more obsessed with me and did many crazy and cruel things to steal my ideas and keep me a secret. He is afraid of my talent being seen for what it really is: MINE. He doesn't want me the fashion world to know about me so he’ll do anything to hide me.
Here’s where it gets radical. He still stalks me. He has hired people to follow me all day and take photos and videos of me for him. This way he can continue copying whatever I wear. Marc Jacobs started to make fashion videos, copying my life, my memories, my moments. The models have to act and pose the way I do. They have to copy my every move.