Marc Jacobs Naked in Magazine

Gay fashion designer Marc Jacobs appears nude on the cover of the new September issue of Out magazine and tells the magazine that he used to be very insecure about his body and often tried to avoid having his picture taken.

"I used to really hate seeing my own reflection in the mirror, and I'm not talking about in a drug- or alcohol-induced state—I mean in general. I just hid behind clothes, and I didn't really care about what I wore, and I didn't care about my skin or my hair—I just felt like, There's nothing more I can do to look more attractive…what's the point? and believing that, I just avoided having my picture taken," Jacobs tells the magazine.

The fashion icon also talks about being the subject of gossip on Internet blogs, "I don't care about all that shit. I'm very outspoken and honest. I'm the first to say that I'm gay, that I'm insecure, that I have certain hang-ups, that I've been dependent on drugs or alcohol, so I don't really hide things with the fear that they're going to be revealed on some blog. You're going to get a bunch of blogs saying 'He must be on meth in order to be that skinny compared to 10 months ago,' but in fact I'm eating a totally organic diet, which has no flour, no sugar, no dairy, and no caffeine, and I lost weight because of that diet and because of a 2?-hour exercise regime seven days a week."

"I am sensitive, and it does create problems for me. I mean, there's part of me that really loves the attention, so there's that side of it. But the side that's sad is how much people love that kind of negativity—the bad news—and how that, unfortunately, allows certain people to feel better about their own lives. I think it exists in everyone to a certain extent, and I'm not going to exclude myself. I do sometimes, with my own insecurities, feel better about my abilities when someone else doesn't do so well, someone I'm envious of," Jacobs says.