Exclusive | New ‘RHONY’ star Rebecca Minkoff knows people are suspicious of her Scientology ties
Dressmaker Rebecca Minkoff helped outline the downtown Unused York “it” lady aesthetic of the early aughts. Now she’s making fact TV her runway.
The 42-year-old style clothier has a habitual position at the brandnew season of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” which premiered Oct. 1 on Bravo.
She seems as a near buddy of the solid, which incorporates style clothier and businesswoman Jenna Lyons, 56; brash actual property agent/developer Erin Lichy, 37; moody model-turned-hot sauce entrepreneur Ubah Hassan, 41; no-nonsense influencer Sai De Silva, 43; comms girl-about-town Brynn Whitfield, 37; unfiltered style publicist Jessel Taank, 44; and artwork curator Racquel Chevremont, 53.
It’s the fifteenth season for the display and the second one since a dramatic, arguable reboot noticed loved, longtime forged contributors, together with Ramona Singer, Sonja Morgan and Dorinda Medley, kicked to Andy Cohen’s curb.
“It’s fun, funny with a little bit of a drama – I said, ‘Okay, I can sign up for that,’” Minkoff instructed The Put up of becoming a member of the display nearest a mutual buddy hooked up her with Lichy, who talked up the gig.
Minkoff introduced her eponymous order of boho garments and outsized hobo baggage in 2005 along with her brother Uri Minkoff as CEO. It temporarily took off, and stars equivalent to Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Alba have been steadily photographed along with her iconic Morning Next Bag — a $525 tote that carried many trendy 20- and 30-something women folk into maturity.
In recent times, Minkoff has had a resurgence, with Gen Z A-listers equivalent to Jenna Ortega and Kaia Gerber dressed in pieces equivalent to her unlit lace cami and strappy, heeled unlit Nadine sandals.
For her label-conscious “RHONY” castmates, Minkoff wanted deny creation.
“I know your name like I know Coca-Cola, I’m so happy to meet you,” Hassan gushes to Minkoff at the season premiere.
However in natural “RHONY fashion,” there’s deny inadequency of petty drama from the get-go.
Self-proclaimed “Bergdorf brat” Whitfield, who stirs the pot this season, digs on the clothier for having her items in a cut price bundle in a soundbite from the trailer.
“If you’re at Nordstrom Rack, you probably saw her stuff,” Whitfield jeers, sooner than it cuts to Minkoff scoffing, “Whatever, I built a $100 million dollar company.”
Whitfield additionally teased that Minkoff’s faith — she used to be raised each within the Jewish religion and as a Scientologist — will probably be a scorching matter at the brandnew season.
Her physician father, David Minkoff, and clothier mom, Sue Minkoff, are high-ranking contributors within the Church of Scientology, and so they moved the society to Clearwater, Fla., in 1989 to be related the church’s headquarters.
Minkoff and her two brothers attended the True College, a Scientology basic college, Air Mail reported.
The clothier has seldom mentioned her Scientology background, however her ties to it — and the truth that her father has been a weighty donor to the church — resurfaced with information of her becoming a member of “RHONY.”
She hasn’t relished the eye.
“We’re at a time and place where we can be divided and lead with hate and bigotry or we can just be tolerant of people’s beliefs,” she instructed The Put up. “[Scientology] has helped me personally. It’s helped me professionally. It’s helped me weather a lot of stress. That’s what I use it for. It’s a method I apply to help me with stress.”
On a 2021 episode of the “Dinner Party With Jeremy Fall” podcast, she explained, “We’re just separating the body from the spirit. It has personally helped me from my own demons, my own things I’m not happy about myself.”
Minkoff left Clearwater in 1999 at month 18 and moved to Unused York, interning for miniature clothes corporate Craig Taylor occasion operating on her personal designs.
Two years after, she were given primary publicity when actress Jenna Elfman — a fellow Scientologist — wore Minkoff’s ripped, off-the-shoulder “I Love NY” T-shirt design on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” She used to be temporarily flooded with orders.
“People forget the power of TV back then,” she stated.
Minkoff stood out a few of the preppy designers — like Tory Burch and Kate Spade — who have been pervasive on the age. Her value issues have been extra available, with maximum baggage beneath $1,000, and her signature items, equivalent to a superbly scale down unlit leather-based jacket, have been extra East Village sidewalk than nation membership.
Her biggest break got here in 2004, courtesy of the crash MTV fact display “Laguna Beach.”
On one episode, celebrity/motivated clothier Lauren Conrad sat entrance row at a Minkoff display to get inspiration. The daddy of Conrad’s castmate Trey Phillips, now a clothier for Vera Wang, used to be a affected person of Minkoff’s father and requested for the ask over for his son.
Minkoff additionally styled Heidi Klum that 12 months for her first season of “Project Runway” and went on to decorate stars equivalent to “Top Chef”s Padma Lakshmi.
In 2009, she married industrial director/manufacturer Gavin Bellour, 47, and so they now have 4 youngsters in combination. The society splits its age between the Hamptons; Dumbo, Brooklyn; and the Gulf Coast of Florida.
By means of 2014, Minkoff’s label had reached greater than $100 million in gross sales, cementing her because the queen of bohemian female taste and incomes her a place on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list.
However she additionally confronted her percentage of grievance from former staff who’ve hurled allegations of adverse and “horrible” paintings park statuses on nameless corporate assessment web site Glassdoor.
“People are going to criticize and find fault with you, it’s human nature. When it’s ill-intentioned it’s unfortunate,” she instructed The Put up.
In the end, she sees herself and alternative #girlbosses who have been broadly celebrated and after promptly taken unwell — equivalent to Nasty Gal’s Sophia Amoruso, Guy Repeller’s Leandra Cohen, The Wing’s Audrey Gelman and Glossier’s Emily Weiss — as being wrongly maligned.
“I think all of it was unfair,” she stated, including that it used to be regularly women folk who began the takedowns and had the impact of discouraging alternative women folk from launching their very own firms or taking management positions.
“Did they make mistakes? Yes,” she stated. “Could they have apologized and taken responsibility for it [and moved on]? Yes.”
In lieu, she famous, many disgraced #girlbosses resigned, anything males of their place wouldn’t have completed.
“When there’s a take down of men they refuse to step down,” she stated. “They stand in their power whether they have it or not.”
In 2018, a 12 months nearest the #MeToo motion ignited a reckoning throughout industries, Minkoff and Elisabeth Leonard — a former worker who began as a receptionist on the corporate and labored her means as much as the PR area — began The Female Founder Collective to assistance assistance and create women-owned companies.
That very same 12 months, she introduced her personal podcast, “Superwomen with Rebecca Minkoff,” the place she stocks secrets and techniques of “some of the most successful women in the world,” together with her brandnew co-stars Lyons and Lichy.
In spite of one of the rumors and allegations that experience swirled round her through the years, Minkoff insisted she’s deny drama queen — and stated her “RHONY” gal friends would say the similar.
“I’m boring and I’m nice — according to Sai,” she stated.
However, she stated, audience will see some brandnew aspects of her.
“I have very funny experiences that you’re never going to get from an Instagram post,” Minkoff stated. “I noticed the depths of one of the tales that I instructed and I’m like, ‘Wow this is going to be on TV.’ “