Donna Karan Defends Weinstein — Says Women ‘Ask For It’

Donna Karan Image by Karen Leon
Fashion designer Donna Karan defended Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein by suggesting women who dress provocatively are “asking for it.”
Weinstein’s other famous female friends Meryl Streep and Judi Dench condemned the film producer over a series of recent sexual harassment allegations against him.
The board of the Weinstein Company fired Weinstein, its co-founder, Sunday after it said it learned of new information about his behavior. Weinstein was already on a leave of absence after The New York Times last week published a report detailing his alleged harassment of a number of women, including actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan.
But in a red carpet interview with the Daily Mail Sunday at the CinéFashion film awards in Los Angeles, Karan said women should consider what message they are sending with their wardrobe choices.
“I think we have to look at our world and what we want to say and how we want to say it. It’s not Harvey Weinstein, you look at everything all over the world today, you know how women are dressing, and what they are asking, by just presenting themselves they way they do. What are they asking for? Trouble.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
