Madonna has been called out for being the fashion equivalent of a bad workman blaming her tools by Giorgio Armani.

The design heavyweight made the costume at the centre of Capegate during her Brit Awards performance, when the singer appeared to get stuck in her cape and was pulled backwards down a flight of stairs by her backing dancers.

She told The Jonathan Ross Show: “Everybody was worried that my cape was going to slide off because it’s quite heavy, so they tied it really tight around my neck. So here I am marching in like a queen, and I got to the top of the stairs and I pulled my silky string, and it would not come undone.

Giorgio Armani
It wasn’t me: Giorgio Armani says his cape wasn’t to blame (Luca Bruno/AP)

“And my two lovely Japanese dancers basically strangled me off the stage. I had a choice: I could either be strangled or fall with the cape, and I fell.”

But Giorgio, possibly the only person who could get away with making such a comment about Madonna, has hit back with: “The cape had a hook and she wanted a tie, and she wasn’t able to open it with her hands. That’s all there is to it. Madonna, as we all know, is very difficult.”

Madonna
Madonna fell on stage at the Brit Awards (Yui Mok/PA Archive/Press Association Images)

However, it seems there are no hard feelings from Madonna, who is not being “difficult” about her designer pal.

Her representative told the New York Post: “S*** happens. Madonna loves Giorgio Armani.”