‘It was intentional’: Janet Jackson’s former stylist discusses infamous Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction

One of the most controversial Super Bowl halftime shows in NFL history is back in the headlines more than twenty years later. It featured Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and their now-infamous wardrobe malfunction. Timberlake has announced a four-part docuseries on his life, reportedly hinting at giving his side of what happened, but one man is ready to set the record straight. Long before the bright lights of Reliant Stadium in Houston, Wayne Scot Lukas was more than just a stylist to Janet Jackson, he was her visual co-conspirator. He sculpted the iconic armor that defined her reign as an international pop titan, including the costume that would be seen around the world. A performance turned into a national scandal. “It was intentional, but it wasn’t intentional to go as far as it did,” said Lukas. “The first idea was based on Samantha Jones in “Sex and the City,” who had worn a pearl G-string for her boyfriend. So I went out and found that pearl G-string, we put rhinestones on it, and we rebuilt the G-string. It was going to be Janet in a Rochas designer skirt that had eight tentacle legs. She was going to be spinning around the stage, walk past Justin, and as he sang “Have you naked by the end of this song,” he was going to step on the back of the skirt. She was going to look over her shoulder, and it was going to rip off the back of her skirt to reveal a G-string with pearls and crystals. Because back then, you could show a butt on television, not a breast. “So it was all planned,” he continued. “But a week before, Britney (Spears), Christina Aguilera, and Madonna kissed at the MTV Video Music Awards. And they cut to Justin, who had just broken up with Britney. That’s when Janet called me to her hotel in Houston and said, “Come meet with me and Gil,” her choreographer. Gil said, ‘We have to do something bigger. We have to do something more shocking.’” Then the big day arrived. “When you shoot the Super Bowl, they shoot a backup tape so that if the satellite goes down, they can cut to the video tape,” said Lukas. “For some reason, the producers from MTV—who were allegedly partying and cheering in the van—never cut to the tape. If they had cut to the videotape, none of this would have ever happened.” The fallout was swift and brutal. “I had morals clauses in many of my contracts, and because I was even involved or near it, they were trying to fire me from contracts,” Lukas said. Corporate panic swept the music industry. Jackson, who would release her eighth studio album, Damita Jo, later that spring, would reportedly be blacklisted at radio stations and sidelined at MTV, all at the hands of then-Viacom boss Les Moonves, but Lukas stood by his longtime friend. “So every time I said to Janet, ‘Hey, I need help,’ she’s like, ‘Don’t worry, don’t say anything. We got this’ and I respected it,” he said. He swallowed the public humiliation and absorbed the career damage, maintaining a wall of silence to shield Jackson from an aggressive media frenzy. More than two decades later, the ghosts of Super Bowl XXXVIII still linger. For Lukas, the night was never just about torn leather or broadcast censors, it was about standing by the artist he loved, even when the world demanded someone take the fall. “I was asked to be in Janet’s docuseries and I did it,” he said. “Janet said she was going to make sure that I was absolved from the wardrobe malfunction, and then she didn’t, which kind of pissed me off, no offense. Justin didn’t ask me to do his docuseries. You know, I dressed Justin for the Justified World Tour; we won best-dressed person in London, beating out David Beckham that year. Justin and I were business friends, so I’m disappointed.” Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.