As always, I fail to find Georgina Chapman to be a sympathetic figure in this mess, and I also fail to see why we need these constant updates on Georgina’s fate, or the fate of her fashion line, Marchesa. Maybe that’s just me – I tend to ignore stories that bother me. Still, a lot of people cared about the fate of Marchesa. Fashion-business experts were trying to figure out if Marchesa could survive the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and I still believe in the assessment of “Chapman just needs to focus on mass-market and bridal, not couture.” Still, Chapman scheduled a Marchesa runway show for New York Fashion Week, which went over like a lead balloon in the fashion community. So now she’s canceled the show.
Looks like Georgina Chapman isn’t ready for her comeback after all. Harvey Weinstein’s estranged wife was slated to show her fashion brand Marchesa at New York Fashion Week on Feb. 14. But on Tuesday, The Post exclusively learned that the show was killed, with an insider saying it will likely be a digital presentation instead.
“Georgina couldn’t go through with it,” says an NYFW vet. “She was too scared.”
The show, ironically scheduled for Valentine’s Day, was set to be produced by Navia Vision, a Brooklyn-based production company.
“They were gung-ho . . . but as they got closer, she choked,” said the fashion week vet. The NYFW vet went on to say that Chapman’s brother, Edward, who is CEO of the fashion company, “doesn’t really have the chops to navigate a boat that’s in that type of water.”
A spokesperson for Marchesa tells The Post, “Marchesa is looking forward to presenting their Fall ’18 collection in an updated format this season.”
Did she really “choke”? Or did she announce the show as a trial balloon to see what the reaction would be, and when the reaction was negative, she decided to stay “dark” for a little while longer? In any case, if she did go through with the show, it would be a pretty sad affair – my guess is that few people/celebrities would go, and the fashion would be overshadowed by scandal. If Marchesa wants to survive, they’re going to have to think outside the “fashion week” box.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN.
If it’s to survive, she needs to put her head down and work her ass off. She should slightly change the signage as well. Just an ‘M’ or some variation of taking the original and turning it on its head for a singularly iconic focus. It’s doable, but the business needs long distance from scandal. Like in another solar system.
I think she needs to change the name. Take her and her brother off as runners, and play in the background. That’s the only way the line will work, if people don’t know she’s involved.
That’s the problem though. The only reason the brand worked was because she had her name out front. (And the Harvey money and influence in the back.) The designs aren’t great enough to stand on their own.
@Molly ITA – I started off being a Marchesa apologist, but read a great article in The Guardian analyzing the situation, and the conclusion was basically “live by the Harvey, die by the Harvey” – she made it big largely because he bullied actresses into wearing her clothes at public events and promoted her shamelessly. She didn’t make it on merit. So, she should also fall with him as she rose because of him.
Reminds me a little of that bit in Age of Innocence:
“And when she said: ‘But my name, Auntie—my name’s Regina Dallas,’ I said: ‘It was Beaufort when he covered you with jewels, and it’s got to stay Beaufort now that he’s covered you with shame.’”
I don’t have any sympathy for her because she and Weinstein were a package. Even if she didn’t know everything, she knew enough about his bullying and vicious behaviour towards her staff. That should have been enough to turn her against him.
In the end, she will be fine. She chose greed rather than decency towards others in making a deal with Weinstein to finance her fashion line, but she will come out of this OK.
So, no sympathy for her.
I agree. Her brand was a complete business partnership with Harvey and his connections. That worked out well for the brand for many years but too bad so sad, time’s up for Marchesa too. The only hope I see for her fashion biz future is to shutter Marchesa and relaunch something under a totally different name–but its.too.soon.
She always has “Project Runway: All Stars” (snicker)…I confess I was hooked on the original, but a lecture from my 17 year old son about reality shows cured me.
I wonder if her business partner (who owns half of Marchesa) knew about any of this? They may be a victim as well in this mess.
True – she’s white, rich, thin and pretty. She’ll be just fine.
I don’t have sympathy for her, because she is rich with a company and even though she and the company are going through this scandal she still has a chance to succeed. I feel sorry for the kids though. I still don’t like the package idea of her and Harvey though. Just like I don’t blame Hillary for Bill or Melania for Donald, I don’t think any spouse should be blamed for the other. Why is it always the woman who gets the blame too? I do understand he helped her company, but still maybe because I liked some of her designs I think it had more to do with her than him.
Agree. So she didn’t know about the serial rapist part OK, but her husband was a notoriously evil, vicious, disturbed person. As they say, when you lie down with dogs you get fleas.
Nothing of value would be lost if Marchesa went under, tbh. Their fashions are vile landfill.
Yes, mass market and bridal seem like the way to go. Change or vary the name.
Marchesa reminded me of Stella McCartney fashion: clothing that was pushed by relationships rather than talent/style/quality.
And also, agreed that Georgina doesn’t seem like a sympathetic figure in this mess. It’s a lot like the Melania Trump situation. A PR team that’s trying to push a devastated wife narrative, but that’s undercut by a relationships that’s clearly an arrangment/business transaction. Women who look lie them don’t marry rich men who like that because they want a loving partnership.
She and Melania knew who they were marrying. They made deals with the devil. You can’t turn a blind eye and then say you didn’t see and expect any sympathy from me.
I don’t think you should give them sympathy, but don’t blame them for their husbands either. If she can make a nice fashion line good for her, and whatever Melania would try to do, good for her too. I just wouldn’t not support either woman’s endeavor because of the crap husband they both married.
I think everyone is missing the point of her direct role in victimizing women. It’s not about blaming her for Harvey’s actions nor is this the same as Melania or HRC being married to horrible men-the weren’t directly complicit.
Georgina and her business associates set up a shady deal where Harvey would pressure and force actresses in his movies (or who wanted to be in his movies) to have to dress up in Marchesa. She was in on it and knew these women weren’t in her fitting room by choice. She engaged in their further victimization by dressing them the way Harvey would approve. That’s disgusting.
Everyone remembers her role and that’s why her business is failing. Had she been a victim of Harvey, the actresses would be supportive of her as a fellow victim but they remember her complicity- that’s why she is getting shunned. Not because she was simply married to Harvey.
Marchesa has been so consistently hit or miss over the years that it was bound for a downturn even if this hadn’t happened. She really needs to narrow her focus to bridal. That kind of tulle-ridden extravagance isn’t particularly well met outside of that industry.
I don’t think she’s responsible for his actions, but you know…lie with dogs, expect to get fleas and all that.
Crickets really. Marchesa needs to bury itself and be born as something else with Chapman behind the scenes. She can say she never knew but public opinion will win out and destroy her at every possible public opportunity. She has plenty of money and connections that flying under the radar for the rest of her life isn’t such a horrid fate… that said, I will shed no tears
I know you are right about the public coming after her, but I just think this is wrong. Why do women get all sorts of crap for our men, when men are never held to the same standard.
I’ve usually been taking her side while people have already found her her guilty just as much as Harvey. But I thought by now someone would speak out for either good or bad in terms of Georgina but there seems to be no concrete evidence on her complicity or what she knew/went though. And no one has spoken out in defence of her saying Harvey hurt her too etc. I was expecting by this point more details on Georgina as I though there would be a deeper story there but now I doubt it.
I don’t know what to think anymore. I read an article where someone said marchesa missed the boat by not donating to the times up movement and I agree. I don’t know whether it’s legal advice but I think georgina should’ve spoken out denouncing Harvey more and shown proper solidarity with the victims.
She’s still not as bad as Harvey because we don’t know what’s going through her head. I dont like to believe she doesn’t care about anything but marchesa, i like to believe as a human being she is disgusted by Harvey and feels horror for what he has done. I’m not going to insult her as a mother either because she has kept them out of the public eye and it’s going to be a rough journey for them as they grow up knowing who their father is.
Interesting points @Sid! Agree that Marchesa should have donated to timesup. I wonder how that company is structured, what percentage shareholder Georgina is, and whether she has control over the board. She may have no real power there, or the board and/or other shareholders may have reduced that following the HW revelations. Whoever is running that brand is doing a sh!t job at taking the temperature of the public and doing some basic PR work.
I think the reason she isn’t publicly denouncing HW is because of her kids. AS vile of a monster as he is, perhaps she isn’t making those statements on account of her children. I do know people who have gone through awful divorces (nothing like HW, but situations involving illegal drugs, abuse, affairs, etc) and to this day their children know *nothing* about the reason for the split.
If had donated to the #TimesUp movement, she would have been attacked for that being a self-serving maneuver PR wise, disingenuous, called a hypocrite, on and on. Even I would have rolled my eyes at that. Staying low and bowing out of NYFW was a smart idea.
Good point. She can’t win either way. I’m still hoping for concrete evidence on her for good or bad. Everything now needs to come out. Nothing should be hidden. I think if she took responsibility of why she married Harvey and how she had a major advantage and took a short cut to success, she could after a while salvage marchesa and her reputation.
“I think georgina should’ve spoken out denouncing Harvey more and shown proper solidarity with the victims.”
She didn’t because she was part of the victimization of actresses through her fashion line. Harvey forced women to wear her clothes. She would have been called out as a hypocrite and complicit Barbie. I’m *guessing* that there is some sympathy for her children and her as their mother plus the misunderstanding that feminism means white women are automatically assumed to be victims. But if she opens her mouth and says Marchesa was not involved in Harvey’s mess, the receipts will be dropping left and right by actresses.