On a rainy November night in 2004, Renée Zellweger arrived in London for the premiere of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. The American actress was fresh from her Oscar win for Cold Mountain and in high demand among designers who were clamouring to dress her. In recent months she had worn strapless Carolina Herrera and floor-length Prada, but on this occasion she chose a red bandeau dress by an unknown label. “This is a new British designer, it’s Marchesa,” she told red-carpet reporters. “It’s weighted and hand-embroidered. I just love it so much.”
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This was the illustrious red-carpet debut of a label that would rule Hollywood for the next 13 years. Although its co-founders, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig, had established Marchesa only months before, it wasn’t long before industry insiders started connecting the dots. Chapman had begun dating Harvey Weinstein a few months prior to the premiere, after the mogul’s divorce from his first wife Eve Chilton. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was co-produced by Miramax, the production behemoth that Weinstein had founded alongside his brother Bob. “Maybe I helped, but just very, very little, with Renée Zellweger,” Weinstein admitted to Vogue in 2013. “Within a year or two, it became actresses calling me on the phone asking if [Georgina] was available for them. So, the tables completely turned. To the point where I didn’t even want to answer the phone if I knew it was an actress.”
Whether due to the brand’s growing popularity or its connection to Weinstein, Marchesa soon became the A-list label of choice – especially for actresses in Miramax-backed projects. Cate Blanchett wore a Marchesa mini to the Rome premiere of The Aviator, Penélope Cruzwore the label while promoting Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Diane Kruger wore it to the 2005 Golden Globes while starring in National Treasure (produced by Disney, Miramax’s parent company). The fashion world took notice: Marchesa was a finalist for the 2006 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, and the following year won Red Carpet Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards. 2007 was also the year Chapman and Weinstein married.
Over the next decade, the producer’s influence over the brand would be visible away from the red carpet, too. He became a front-row fixture at Marchesa’s runway shows at New York Fashion Week, accompanied by the likes of Mandy Moore, Karen Elson and Rita Ora. A 2007 profile of the brand in The New York Times revealed that Weinstein “made timely contributions [to Marchesa] in amounts the company would not disclose”. It also emerged that Giuseppe Cipriani, one of Marchesa’s primary investors, was a close friend of Weinstein. In a February 2018 interview with Grazia, Craig denied that Weinstein had any remaining financial involvement in the company.
A backlash was brewing long before the allegations against Weinstein emerged. “Competitors complain that Marchesa dresses are worn on the red carpet because the stars – and their agents, managers and lawyers – need to please the powerful Weinstein,” read a 2006 Los Angeles Times article titled The Harvey Factor? “Say the word ‘Marchesa’ and publicists groan.” Conscious that some commentators did not believe she deserved her success, Chapman told The New York Times, “Whatever people say about Harvey to me, I want them to look at the dresses.” There was certainly no escaping them – from the Oscars red carpet to Cannes’ Croisette, Marchesa was being worn by everyone from Amy Adams and Sienna Miller to Anne Hathaway and Nicole Kidman.
On 5 October 2017, Chapman and Craig were presenting Marchesa’s AW18 bridal collection at New York Bridal Week when The New York Times published its exposé of Weinstein, accusing him of paying off sexual harassment accusers for decades. The connection proved fatal for the brand. A collaboration with Helzberg Diamonds was put on hold. The upcoming AW18 ready-to-wear show was cancelled. Chapman promptly released a statement, telling People: “My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions. I have chosen to leave my husband.” But much of the fashion and film industry had already turned their backs. #BoycottMarchesa began trending on Twitter. “No star is ever going to want to wear the brand again,” a New York fashion publicist declared to The Hollywood Reporter.
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In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, the long-held rumour that actresses had been pressured to wear Marchesa was resurfacing. Felicity Huffman confirmed that Weinstein had once threatened her career if she refused to wear Marchesa, telling her he wouldn’t put money behind the promotion of the 2005 drama Transamerica unless she complied. Huffman subsequently wore Marchesa to several high-profile events, including the film’s New York premiere and to the 2006 Golden Globes where she won the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama. Sienna Miller reportedly faced similar pressure when promoting the Weinstein-backed film Factory Girl. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, a publicist recalled showing Miller a gown by another designer she liked ahead of the 2007 Golden Globes, only to be told by her team that because she would be sitting with Weinstein during the ceremony “he would be very upset if she didn't wear Marchesa”.
In 2013, Kerry Washington risked incurring Weinstein’s wrath after making a last-minute switch ahead of the Oscars. Washington, who had recently starred in The Weinstein Company production Django Unchained, had apparently planned to wear a custom-made Marchesa gown but instead opted for embellished Miu Miu. “Isn’t it career kamikaze to upset Harvey’s wife on such an important night?” pondered one of Page Six’s anonymous sources. Later that year, Washington wore a floral Marchesa gown to the Emmys.
Jessica Chastain remains one of the few actresses to have publicly spoken on the issue. When asked to wear Marchesa to the premiere of The Weinstein Company’s The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, she refused to cooperate and wore Atelier Versace instead. She recalled how Weinstein later chided her when introducing the actress at an event. “He actually told the audience, ‘If I had to get in a boxing ring with Muhammad Ali or Jessica Chastain, I would choose Muhammad Ali,’” Chastain told WSJ Magazine.
2018 marked the end of Marchesa’s red-carpet reign. As the Time’s Up initiative launched and declared an all-black dress code for the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, the once ubiquitous label was nowhere to be found. Speaking to Vogue in May, Chapman maintained that it was her decision not to offer dresses to clients during awards season. “We didn’t feel it was appropriate given the situation,” she explained. “All the women who have been hurt deserve dignity and respect, so I want to give it the time it deserves. It’s a time for mourning really.”
But Chapman’s mourning period would soon be over. At the 2018 Met Gala, Scarlett Johansson ignited a social media storm when she chose to wear a tulle Marchesa gown. The actress defended her decision in a statement to Entertainment Tonight, saying: “I wore Marchesa because their clothes make women feel confident and beautiful, and it is my pleasure to support a brand created by two incredibly talented and important female designers.” The narrative around the brand was shifting. Where Chapman had once been framed as a naïve victim, she was now being presented as a businesswoman who was being unfairly blamed for the crimes of her husband – just as her friend the former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had been blamed for her husband Anthony Weiner’s indiscretions in 2016. For some, wearing Marchesa was becoming a feminist statement.
In the next few months, Marchesa slowly began reappearing on the red carpet: on Vanessa Hudgens at the Los Angeles premiere of Dog Days, on Cindy Crawford at the 2018 Fashion Awards and on Priyanka Chopra at her New York bridal shower. “Georgina’s a friend of mine,” Chopra told WWD. “And it’s not her fault. And I don’t think it’s right to take it out on a self-made woman what somebody in her life did. That’s the wrong attitude. I’ve known her for years, and that was a beautiful gown and deserved to be worn by a bride-to-be. And it made me feel like a princess. It was the right choice. Women supporting women: that’s what we’re all about.”
A number of Hollywood stylists have echoed this message of solidarity. Ilaria Urbinati, who dresses Bradley Cooper and Rami Malek, expressed her support on Instagram, writing: “I found it disappointing that people jumped to the conclusion that ‘she knew’ or the equally finger-pointing ‘How could she not have known?’ If anything, my first instinct is not to blame her but to rally by her. As a stylist, putting her dresses on clients is tricky because I wouldn’t want to enforce that kind of scrutiny on a client. That would have to be their choice… but I appreciated the ballsiness of Scarlett Johansson showing up at the Met in one of her creations.”Read more: Will The Red Carpet Still Be Relevant In 2019?
But does wearing Marchesa on the red carpet always have to be a political act? While many stars may have been strong-armed into promoting the label, the brand also enjoyed its fair share of genuine fans – women who had nothing more to gain from wearing the frothy confections than the joys of a beautiful dress. Among them is the Duchess of Cambridge, who wore a flared Marchesa Notte dress to the theatre in April 2017 and another pink lace gown at a state banquet in July 2017. Notably, she has not worn the label since the Weinstein scandal.
When approached for comment in the midst of awards season 2019, Chapman and Craig declined to be interviewed, but a Marchesa representative did pass along a list of women who had worn the brand on the red carpet in recent weeks. Among them was Crazy Rich Asians star Michelle Yeoh, A Quiet Place’s Millicent Simmonds and recent Golden Globe winner for Sharp Objects, Patricia Clarkson. The Hollywood-wide boycott does appear to be over. Should these women be blamed for choosing to wear floral ballgowns? No, but the actresses who were allegedly bullied into wearing Chapman and Craig’s creations will find it difficult to stomach a comeback. While the social media storm rages on, we are at risk of forgetting that Weinstein is still awaiting trial for sexual harassment and assault – and that is the greatest tragedy of all.
