Rebecca Minkoff On Laguna Beach, RHONY Drama, Scientology, Financial Education, & More
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00:00All right. Well, Rebecca, welcome to Us Weekly. I'm so excited to have you here to chat about
00:04your book, Fearless, which is a fantastic read. I feel like I've learned so much,
00:09but this is a re-release. You added another chapter. So why was it so important for you
00:13to put this extra bonus chapter in? So I think I've had some perspective
00:18since it was published in 2021. I've sold my company. I became a mother of four.
00:22And I was thinking about a conversation that women don't often have. We are the first to
00:27pull out our phones and show our kids or talk about our sex life. But we never talked to each
00:31other about money and what we're making and what we're investing in. And I feel like it's that,
00:37because we don't do that, we are so much more behind. So I wanted to add that in as like,
00:41I wish I knew this in my twenties and my thirties and not discovering it now
00:46and knowing where to turn to. I joke with my financial advisor, I shouldn't be getting my
00:52advice from Instagram, but it's giving me more than you are, you know? So like get fluent in it,
00:57get comfortable, ask questions. I always feel like they should start
01:00teaching this early on in school. I feel like, like I've always had these conversations. I'm
01:04like, why don't they teach like basic finance in school? You know, like, right.
01:08Yeah. Yeah. Like we don't need to know like English as much as we have to study it.
01:13We should learn about how to invest. Seriously. Really? What, what inspired
01:17you to first write the book? I was inspired to first write the book
01:20because I felt like I had achieved enough longevity in my career and I had so much
01:26just hard one knowledge. And I wanted to create something that wasn't a workbook or hard to do,
01:31or you have to sit down and dedicate time to like write out 20 steps that you could just have
01:35these tools that are easily rememberable at your disposal in those moments of,
01:39oh no, should I do this? Should I quit? Should I start a business?
01:43Should I break up with him? Whatever it is. And you just have these sorts of things that you
01:47can say, oh yeah. Is the risk worth it? Can I stomach it if I fail? Good. Let's go forward.
01:53Or I don't need to ask for permission. I'm just going to ask for what I need in a moment. And just
01:59you know, tweaking your mindset a little bit to like really just approach things through the
02:03lens of you're going to be scared. There's a lot of fear that comes with risk, but if you feel
02:09confident enough to just take it anyways, you usually will do something that is good.
02:15What role do you feel like is most applicable in your life right now?
02:19Well, I like taking lots of risks. It's my source of adrenaline at the moment.
02:25So I like to say yes to crazy stuff. So just, you know, take the risk.
02:29Like Real Housewives of New York.
02:30Like Real Housewives of New York was a very big risk.
02:33Yes, definitely. We'll talk more about that in just a minute. But speaking of risks, I mean,
02:37you picked up your life from Florida, moved to New York and kind of started from the ground
02:43up. And it's so interesting to hear like all the little things along all the little risks
02:47along the way. What do you feel like was the biggest risk you ever took in your career?
02:52Oh, my gosh. So many. I think there was a moment I'd say even more recently during COVID
02:58when we saw 70 percent of our business evaporate. We had to shrink our company by half. We all had
03:04to take pay cuts. It was like we were looking at the barrel down the barrel of can we exist?
03:09You know, can we stay in business? And it was riskier to say, let's keep trying than it was
03:15to just say bye. It was fun. It was harder. It was going to be more hours, more work, you know,
03:21and so that was a big risk and it paid off. We're still here celebrating 20 years.
03:26Congratulations. Thank you. But that had to be so scary because you're like,
03:30I worked so hard for this and we've come such a long way and to see it all kind of disappear
03:34for, you know, for that would have been a tough pill to swallow.
03:38It would have been very tough. My brother and I, who was my co-founder, like just said, you know
03:42what, we'd rather go down in flames trying than just walk away with everything we built, all the
03:46team, you know, we owe to ourselves at least like one last hurrah.
03:50One last hurrah. I love that your mom told you to like make your first dress. Like if you want to
03:54go to this, was it your dance or was it, I think it was, right?
03:58It was just a dress in the window.
03:59Yeah, dress in the window. If you want it, you make it. I think that's so fantastic. Do you
04:03have that same mindset when it comes to your own children?
04:05I do. It is so much more work to say no to a child, especially that wants something.
04:10Yeah.
04:10But it's like ingrained in me. Like I have to say no because you need to figure out how to earn it.
04:14And sometimes she chooses not to earn it and doesn't get it. And sometimes she really doubles
04:19down and really goes for it. And then you see the pride and that's what I'm trying to teach them.
04:24It's like hard work yields results and you get something for it.
04:27Are your kids falling in love with fashion?
04:30My daughter is, yes. She's now trying to steal my clothes and she doesn't take
04:34no for an answer. She's wearing my stuff out. I'm like, no. And she's like, yeah,
04:39she's 10. So I'm in trouble.
04:40You are in trouble. Those teen years are creeping up soon and
04:44she's going to be raiding the closet. It's not a bad closet to raid.
04:47Not bad. Not bad at all. When she was upset that my fourth was a boy, I was like,
04:51but you get everything now. And she was like, oh good. I'm glad it's a boy.
04:54Yeah. Right. I love the story about how the morning after bag kind of came to fruition,
04:59like inspired by sex in the city. Right. Was there a particular moment or scene that you
05:04were like, oh my God, light bulb just went off. I think for me, it was just watching Sarah Jessica
05:10Parker, like walk into some fabulous fashion event, order the Cosmo, you know, look for big,
05:16maybe, you know, sleep with Aiden. And I was like, I want that. And there was,
05:22I think a shamefulness to a woman having that experience prior to sex in the city.
05:26But after that, it was like, let's reclaim the streets at five in the morning. Like,
05:29let's have our like proud walk. And so that was why I named it the morning after.
05:34And it took off from there. It really, I love, and also love the story about how
05:39I think it was the Jenna Elfman's, maybe her movie. And you like missed the deadline to get
05:44that bag. And then you're like, whatever, I'm going to walk around. I'm going to make it work
05:47for myself. I thought that was such a cool story too. Yeah. It was like, oh, now I own my first
05:51luxury bag that paid enough for it for the sample. So here we go. But honestly, thanks to Us Weekly,
05:56because if they hadn't, if you know, Us Weekly hadn't run her image over and over again,
06:01wearing the shirt, like, I don't think I would be here either.
06:03Yeah. That's crazy. Did she get free Rebecca Minkoff for life?
06:06Anything she wants. She's a lifetime member.
06:08Lifetime membership. And you, before you were on Roni, you were on Laguna beach.
06:13I was. I had a small cameo. No one knew what reality TV was. So to me, when, when I got the
06:20call, like, do you want MTV to come film this show? They're doing a reality show. No one knew
06:24what the term was. And I was like, yeah, why not? It's going to be on MTV. That's eyeballs for me.
06:29So they were very non-invasive. I maybe talked to those kids. They were kids for like two minutes.
06:35But I just was on Kristen Cavallari's podcast. And I was like, do you remember when,
06:39and I took her down memory lane. Did she remember? Yeah, she did.
06:42Oh my God. That's so funny. After that experience, we were like, I,
06:46maybe I want to do reality TV a little bit more. No, it wasn't even in my mind.
06:50No, never. I love that you talk a lot about maternity leave and how each maternity leave
06:56looked a little different for you, especially as a woman, a woman running her own business.
07:00Yeah. What, what was the last one like for you? And,
07:04you know, if you could go back in time and change things, what would it be?
07:08I think the last one I went into it thinking, okay, I'm going to take a full three months off,
07:12but right away I just know myself. I'm like, oh, I get itchy. Like I like,
07:16I like being able to be somewhat of a lunching mom, but then I get antsy and I need to work.
07:21So I did work a little bit. We had an exciting wicked collaboration that was just beginning
07:25to take fruition. So I was working on that with my team.
07:29But I need to be stimulated in other ways, you know, outside of baby.
07:33Yeah. I hate asking the question, like, how do you balance it all? But like,
07:37how do you find, do you feel like after 20 years in this business and you know,
07:41your oldest is 10, do you feel like you finally kind of struck that balance at all?
07:47I think we need to do away with the term. Men don't have it. Women don't have it. Stop. It's
07:52like all of us, you know, like we're going to be young forever. Like it's not going to happen.
07:56I still struggle with mom guilt. I'm experiencing it right now. You know,
08:00like back to back very long days, not seeing the kids. And I think for me, it's about having an
08:06incredible team. I'm only here because I have, well, there's three in front of me right now,
08:10but like, you know, a host of women who are supporting me through this.
08:14And then it's having a good teammate in the household and having a babysitter. You know,
08:18it's kind of like I built my village, my, sorry, my village. And it's about figuring
08:23that out for yourself. It does. It does take a village. It really does. It really,
08:26really does. When you, when people read this book, what are you hoping that they really take
08:30away from it? I hope they take away the idea that you're still going to be scared, you know,
08:34but take the risk anyways, really weigh the options. You know, my friend and I talk about
08:39it a lot. What's the worst that can happen if you're okay with that as the outcome,
08:43take the risk. And that you have just, again, these things in your head that you can repeat
08:48when you're in those moments. What scares you the most right now?
08:52What scares me the most right now at business? It's moving so fast. You know, when I first
08:57started, I had one style of bag for an entire year and I had the time and breath and it was
09:04still exciting. And now it's like, what's next, what's next, what's next. And it's hard to be
09:08creative when you're under this gun of, you know, the TikTok trend is going to happen and then go
09:13away in the span of a day. And do you have the right item for that? And so that makes it really
09:18hard to keep up. Yeah. I would say like, I would imagine sometimes you might have like creative
09:21block. I would think. Yeah. Yes. Luckily I have other people that, you know, one man down. Yeah.
09:28But no, that's like you said, it just, it moves so fast and you have a lot of exciting collaborations.
09:32So your collaboration for the Superbowl, which is really cool. Yeah. So Aaron Andrews and I
09:37came together to design like a really fun Superbowl jacket. It's my signature Tabitha
09:41moto. We put this really great graphic on the back for Superbowl 59. It kind of reminds me
09:45of like a Harley Davidson jacket. So that's available on our site and fanatics has a
09:50version of it. And then we have some more collaborations in the works. Very, very cool.
09:54All right. And then you're just coming off of your first season of Real Housewives of New York.
10:00How would you kind of sum up this experience for you? I learned a lot. Yeah. I think that I,
10:06I went in maybe with rose color. I went in with rose colored glasses. It's a tough show.
10:14It can be very tough personally. You know, you're dealing with relationships and I, yeah.
10:21Regret it. I never regret anything. I'm done with regrets. I learned so much and it was incredible
10:27for business. I made some good friends out of it. I'm still really close with. So you know what
10:35it's, you know, I have in here, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn instead of fail. I learned.
10:40I learned a lot. What would you say is the biggest lesson that you learned?
10:43The biggest lesson that I learned is a couple, a couple of things. Trust your gut.
10:49When something feels off or when someone seems fake, believe your gut. I also think that
10:57communication is everything. Anytime I found myself in a tough situation in the reunion or in
11:03life, like communicate through it as much as you can. And sometimes you have to be relentless with
11:09how you have to stand up for something. Sure. Who felt off to you? Funny that you asked that
11:14question. I mean, I clocked Brynn being the way she was almost right away. Like my red flag went
11:22up. And so I wasn't going to give her or engage. I just was like, I see you. So I know you want me
11:29to react. I know you want, you know, I saw online, she needs to stand up for herself. No, no, no.
11:34You're when you know how a person can act, it's not about standing up for yourself. It's about
11:39preserving your energy and it's about not engaging. And that's a stronger stance than just,
11:43you know, with, um, distilling it down to like a cat fight. Sure. Yeah. Um, and so that was,
11:50you know, something that I listened to my gut on that one. Other people, you know,
11:55should have clocked them sooner, but whatever. Yeah. Do you feel like she was trying to beat
11:58you a little bit, especially in the helicopter? Yeah. She was trying to bait me and I think get
12:02a reaction. And obviously for that show, conflict is key, but when it's produced and it's like,
12:09I'm going to do this on purpose, I smelled that too. And I was like, I'm not taking the bait,
12:13not taking the bait. Yeah. Do you feel like, cause I know we see in the reunion, how was
12:17your reunion experience overall before we, um, it was unpleasant. Yeah. Yeah. Did it feel
12:23awkward? Cause I know when you kind of walked off a side, said it was awkward. Did it feel
12:28awkward for you too? Yeah. I thought that have having had all these close experiences that when
12:35I walked off, someone would say bye or good to see you. It felt like, like the mean girls club
12:41all of a sudden. And I was like, what, what happened? Did I miss a memo somewhere that
12:45everyone is like now, like stay away from this girl. But it literally felt like it just felt
12:52very weird. And I was honestly like, Oh, okay. You know, the only thing I could think of is I
12:59knew they were having a hard day. I knew they were having very tough conversations. And I think when
13:04you're in that headspace again, energy preservation for all of them, it seemed like they just had to
13:10power down, but, or they really just don't like me. And I, and I'm, I'm the idiot. Did anybody
13:16reach out to you afterwards? Yeah. Jessalyn Uba did. Okay. And what did they kind of say to you?
13:20Just checking in on you. Yeah. Did you have a tough time kind of like compartmentalizing your
13:25thoughts after that reunion, after you walked off? No, but I think when you're in the moment and it
13:30feels like whack-a-mole, you're like, do I answer this or this? Do I address this one or this one?
13:36And, but if I do this, I won't get to that. And that's important. And you can't like put a pin in
13:39it. And so it was really, I think, interesting and sort of hard to navigate which question do I
13:45answer and how, and, um, hopefully I, I answered enough and got through enough. Do you feel like
13:50you got your point across? I do. Yeah. Nothing left. Oh, I think there's things left. I think
13:55Erin and I probably need to have a conversation. Right. Have you had a conversation since? No,
13:58we haven't. No. Did you see that relationship taking a turn in the way it did? I was very
14:02surprised. I was as shocked as probably everyone else. That's when I found out.
14:06At the reunion is when you found out that things weren't, that's, that's gotta be a tough pill to
14:11swallow too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because we were close, like, you know, off camera, we hung out
14:16all the time. You know, we had our kids met, our husbands met, like we hung out all summer together.
14:21So it was, you know, I knew we had had a disagreement prior, but I didn't know it was
14:24like, Oh, the end of the friendship is here. That was, that was the big newsflash I failed to
14:30receive. Oh, wow. Well then I would imagine them walking off. You'd be like, wait, what just
14:34happened here? Like, I thought we were friends. Do you feel like she was saving it then for the
14:38reunion? Um, likely. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone needs to figure out a way to get their Apple, I guess.
14:44Do you want an Apple? TBD. TBD. We'll have to wait and see. Do you want a friendship with
14:50Erin going forward? I mean, I think if everyone can realize their own responsibilities and take
14:54ownership for them, I certainly did at the reunion. Um, then the conversation's always
14:59available. Yeah. What did you make of her bringing up like these approved talking points that you had?
15:05Um, she says, she asked me if she could ask this and I said, okay, if, if everyone thinks that
15:12that's like that only happened with me and everyone is not guilty of saying, you know,
15:18things in certain situations, then they're lying. Uh, especially if people had to, uh, fix something
15:25or, you know, you know, wanted to change something. So that's all I'll say. I can't say more because
15:30I'm not going to throw someone else under the bus. Sure. Yeah. I mean, do you wish that you
15:33were a little bit more, more forthcoming throughout the season about Scientology
15:38and things like that? So maybe that the heat wouldn't have been on you when it came to that
15:42topic? Um, no, because it was never brought up in a manner that was respectful. It was always done
15:49with, you know, as Brynn says, I like to play horrible, horrible games. I like to stir this,
15:55stir the pot. So would anyone bring feel comfortable? No. I think that the other
16:01time she brought it up in the helicopter, she had already been drinking all day and it was
16:05not done from a point of care and we had barely met. So do I dive in and ask you your religious
16:11beliefs having never met you, like get to know me, you know, and by that time I already knew
16:15about the Nordstrom comments. So I'm already a little bit like, Hey, I don't know that I trust
16:19you. Um, and some of the girls says that they felt I was standoffish about it. And I said it,
16:24I am not standoffish if it's a genuine interest. I'm not here to like bring it up and be like,
16:30you got any questions for me? But if you have a genuine interest and you want to bring it up,
16:34great. But if you're going to make me feel like you're just doing this to stir the pot
16:38or be mean spirited, I'm not going to engage with anyone on any topic in that manner.
16:44What did you make of Erin separating herself from the prank?
16:47Well, that was a wild, um, I wish they would have played the footage of us
16:51talking about it and having the idea. I said, what if we do and I'm pregnant? And then she
16:56says, and you don't know who the father is. So to me it was a back and forth dialogue of us
17:01planning the prank, even though in the seed of it was mine and I'm all about taking responsibility.
17:08A lot of people were upset, but when the distance happened, I was like, wait, this was ours. And
17:12if it had gone well, would you have been like, this was ours? Um, but again, I went into it
17:18thinking that the fans would be let in on it. Everyone knew it was like the crew knew production
17:26knew like everyone knew. So I thought, Oh great. The fans will be let in on that. They'll think
17:30it's funny. We'll see who the leak is, which was the whole point of the game. It wasn't a game.
17:36Um, and then to trick the fans was a shock to me because I never would have done that. Had that
17:41been the case, I'm sure that you were very disappointed that that was never shown. Uh,
17:45yeah. I mean, it still could be shown. There could be a flashback at some point in the future of
17:49both of us planning the prank together. It's very, very true. And or text messages where we're laughing
17:54about the prank together together. Yeah. Would you release them on your own? Uh,
17:59I would, but it's, it's so petty to me. Like I've moved on and I feel like if someone has to stand
18:04there and defend themselves about a prank, like, and also people are so tired of talking about it.
18:09Yeah. I think when people watch this reunion and watch the end of it, it's really going to
18:15throw people for a loop that everybody, you know, made up with Bryn, especially Uber going up,
18:20hugging her. And, and I, I didn't see it coming. Your reaction. I was shocked. I,
18:26as I was saying before we started filming, I talked to her almost every day and she mentioned
18:30she hugged her. Um, and that, you know, they, they made up, but that they will not be in
18:35communication with each other, but they really had this intimate moment that I never expected
18:40ever to have happen. And, um, it's what Uber needed to do to get closure. Do you feel like
18:46it's a closure on the friendship or do you feel like she opened that door for maybe a possible
18:50friendship going forward? Cause they were very close at a time. I would never want to say what
18:56Uber decides on the future. But at the moment when I spoke to her, like I forgive you so that I can
19:01fly and that is done. Would you feel like her relationship is done within every other person
19:07in that group? I can only speak to like what Aaron has posted publicly on Instagram, uh, or,
19:14you know, I don't really know where everyone's head is at with it. Yeah. Do you, do you feel like
19:19Brynn will be back next season if there's another, I can't imagine why she wouldn't be back. That's
19:23true. Right. They really brought the arc full circle to, you know, redemption of the villain,
19:29you know, right. That's true. Everybody loves a redemption story. It's very true. So overall,
19:34an interesting and learning experience. Yes. Very interesting. Very learning, but incredible. Like,
19:39you know, for the brand, for the opportunities I've had, the friends I've made. So it was good
19:43for the brand. I know a lot of people have said that, you know, she went on because of the brand.
19:47It's good for the brand. I wish they would have shown this too. Like when I was like,
19:50all y'all are doing this for the brand. Are you doing it for like the good of humanity? And Andy's
19:54like, yeah, I agree with Rebecca. Like it's wild to me that you get criticized for even saying it's
20:01good for business. Like why are so, why, what other reason is there? Please give me one. I'd
20:06like to see it. Remember season, uh, the last season when Jenna was gifting everybody the
20:10gifts. Right. I'm glad that business is going well and doing good and that you are a great
20:16addition to the season and you look fantastic at the reunion. I loved your look. Thank you.
20:20Thank you so much for coming by talking about your book. Fearless. Get it. It's wonderful.
20:25You're going to learn a lot of great things and for conquering business. And you have done that.
20:28So thank you so much for coming by. Thank you.