How he made stars wear British wife’s fashion label
AFTer days of sordid allegations, it seemed the only woman standing by embattled movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, 65, was his British fashion designer wife Georgina Chapman, 41.
But on Tuesday, less than a week after Weinstein told the New York Post that his wife was ‘100 per cent’ behind him, came her announcement she was leaving.
Georgina, mother of their two young children India, seven, and Dashiell, four, who married him in 2007, broke her silence to say: ‘My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions.’
Now, the accusations against him threaten to engulf his wife’s fashion empire — and allegations emerge that stars wore the label in its early days to curry favour with Weinstein. With a fortune estimated at £153 million, Weinstein — who sold Miramax to Disney in 1993 — could be adding a hefty divorce settlement to his woes.
So was this a classic case of the wife always being the last to know? One friend of the couple yesterday told the Mail: ‘Harvey denied it all to Georgina and that’s why she supported him at first, but it became impossible for her to stay married to him when everyone started condemning him.’
Brought up in richmondupon-Thames, Georgina credits her fashion journalist mother Caroline Wonfor for inspiring her love of fashion by taking her shopping in London’s Sloane Square. Her multi-millionaire father Brian Chapman, founder of the organic coffee company Percol, is now divorced from her mother.
educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Georgina went on to study at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Wimbledon School of Art where she began her career as a costume designer.
In 2004, she launched Marchesa with business partner and friend Keren Craig. They built contacts with U.S. stylists in the hope of attracting a celebrity clientele —an ambition given a turbo boost with the arrival of Harvey Weinstein in Georgina’s life.
They married in a lavish ceremony in 2007 attended by George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez and U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour among others.
Yesterday there were claims he used his influence in the label’s early days to bully stars into wearing the brand.
An LA-based publicist told the Hollywood reporter that Weinstein threatened to pull funding from Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman’s 2005 film Transamerica if she didn’t wear Marchesa on the red carpet.
She reportedly obliged by turning up at the Golden Globes — where she was nominated for both her movie and Desperate Housewives — in a flowing white Marchesa gown.
Another publicist recalled that Sienna Miller was told Harvey ‘would be very upset if she didn’t wear Marchesa’ when invited to sit at Harvey’s table at the Golden Globes in 2007 after starring in the Weinstein-produced Factory Girl.
But in the 2009 Vogue interview Weinstein said that after renee Zellweger wore one of his wife’s gowns, ‘Within a year or two, it became actresses calling me on the phone asking if she was available for them. So the tables completely turned.’
A picture posted to Georgina’s Instagram in June perhaps tells its own story: it shows the influential magazine The Hollywood reporter with stars including Nicole Kidman wearing Marchesa.
TODAY, Georgina’s younger brother edward is CEO of the Marchesa brand, so the scandal engulfing her husband could have far-reaching effects on those close to her.
It couldn’t have come at a worse time with 12 collections to oversee — two for bridal and two for handbags — and the recently launched shoe and jewellery lines.
Then there is the company’s partnership with the charity Magic Bus, a mentoring and educational programme in areas of India which provides Marchesa with its fabrics and embroideries.
In an interview only last August, Georgina shared her personal motto: ‘Never say never to anything. You just don’t know what’s around the corner ... Who knows what the future holds?’
Whatever the future holds, right now it’s not looking good.