A Lizzo fan made a video asking to borrow her dress for a red carpet event. The plea actually worked

Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 18, 2022. It has since been updated.

Getting ready for a big day and not being able to find a dream dress in the right size is a problem that many women face. But asking a celebrity to send their outfit is something that few think to do. However, that's exactly what Tiktok user and writer Aurielle Marie did.  Marie—whose pronouns are they/she—was ecstatic when they found out they were on the Out 100 list in 2022. As part of the honor, she was invited to attend the Out Magazine's gala in New York. There was only one problem; they couldn't find anything to wear to the event. In most of the stores she went to, Marie could only find sizes 12 and under, according to NBC News. 

Marie—who penned the critically acclaimed poetry collection "Gumbo Ya Ya" in 2020 and is widely known for writing about fatphobia, Blackness and queer identity—had one dress in mind when they thought of what they'd like to look like at the event. "I ended up on this photo of Lizzo. She wore this dress as she accepted her first Emmy," they explained. "The dress was voluminous. It took up space. It was sexy, but it wasn’t overtly sexy... I was like, I want to feel like this."

Finally, Marie mustered up the courage to reach out to Lizzo through a Tiktok video and ask if she could borrow one of the "Good as Hell" singer's outfits. In the video, she starts off by saying, "This Tiktok is for Lizzo." They go on to say that although they know Lizzo must be busy, they need a "minute of her time."

"It is the biggest accolade of my career [and] there is nothing I want more than to be able to be in New York in a month and accept the award with the other Out 100. I just have one problem. I have not got anything to wear," Marie explains in the video.

"I know you know how it feels to be the biggest... in a room and all the scrutiny and hyper-visibility that comes with that," she continues, addressing the singer. "Because I've watched you talk about it and the audacity that you've marked in your career has helped me step out and be audacious myself... I gotta ask. Can I please, please, please wear your dress from the 2022 Emmys?" Marie was asking for the red tulle gown by designer Giambattista Valli, which Lizzo wore to accept the award for outstanding competition program for her show "Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls."

The video was soon appreciated by people on the platform and someone from Lizzo's management team reached out to Marie. The person who contacted her told her that Lizzo had seen the video and passed it on to her managers, asking them to send Marie one of her gowns. But there was another problem. The dress that Marie liked was in shambles because "everyone kept stepping on Lizzo's train." Fortunately, they found another that was "very similar in the best ways," Marie said. The gown arrived just 20 minutes before they had to leave for their flight from Atlanta to New York.

They ran into another hurdle when the zipper malfunctioned, Marie said, but Lizzo's team quickly managed the snafu by sending a seamstress to their New York hotel to fix the dress in time for the event. Speaking about the whole experience, Marie said that while it gave her a "wholesome" story, it highlights the fatphobia that exists in society with limited options for size-inclusive clothing. They said they don't see many people "being kind to fat people who aren't famous."

"This is a heartwarming story, and I love that for me. But I'd love it even more if people took something like this and were able to see the humanity in people with bodies that are different," Marie said. "I shouldn't have to ask Lizzo for a cute dress."