Donna Karan Completely Regrets Her Harvey Weinstein Comments, Apologizes Again
Last week, Donna Karan made headlines after suggesting women may be “asking for it” in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
“I also think how do we display ourselves? How do we present ourselves as women? What are we asking? Are we asking for it by presenting all the sensuality and all the sexuality? You look at everything all over the world today and how women are dressing and what they are asking by just presenting themselves the way they do. What are they asking for? Trouble,” she told the Daily Mail during a red carpet interview.
The following day, she issued an apology in a statement that said she was "truly sorry to anyone" she offended and "everyone that has ever been a victim." It read, “My statements were taken out of context and do not represent how I feel about the current situation concerning Harvey Weinstein. I believe that sexual harassment is NOT acceptable and this is an issue that MUST be addressed once and for all regardless of the individual.
In a new interview with WWD, the designer offers a more in-depth explanation of her comments and claims she didn’t quite understand the question.
“I mean, I hadn’t been paying attention to any of the news, and you hear little stories here and a little story there. And quite honestly, it wasn’t my place to say anything. Sometimes the press can kind of gear you on, and I didn’t feel it was appropriate,” she said, explaining her reaction was to “a little bit of rumor,” hence why she “weaved” her way around it.
“I know Harvey, and I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to be commenting on it, so I wiggled my way out of it. However, what I did comment on was sexual harassment,” she said, adding, “it didn’t come out [the right] way.”
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Karan also expressed her regret for making the comments.
“It was not what I meant. I [so regret] that that came out of my mouth because, as I was avoiding Harvey, and what [a] blur … I am really, really apologetic,” she told WWD, according to The Cut.
“I have been dressing women for 40 years and I show their sensuality, I have done it in my advertising campaign, I have shown it as a mother, as a grandmother, as a woman, [I’ve shown] her legs and her hosiery and her bras and her fragrance. And I have always had men and women together.”
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She added, “it was inappropriate and I just went off. And I shouldn’t have done it. I was exhausted, I was tired and—[when] it came back to me, I was shocked that I even said this myself. Because I was preparing in my mind what I was going to say in the theater. And I just went off on something that I shouldn’t have, and I apologize profusely. I regret it so strongly.”
The designer also opened up about her relationship to Weinstein and his wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, saying she previously helped Chapman when she started in fashion. “She’s an elegant, elegant, elegant woman. Harvey—we haven’t personally been friends. The only time I’ve really been with Harvey is at a screening he would do or something like that.”
As for whether she had heard of Weinstein’s misconduct within the industry, before the allegations, she said “Never. Never, never, never have I ever heard this about Harvey. Ever.”
