If anyone watched It’s A Brad, Brad World last night you saw Brad Goreski, the former Rachel Zoe protege, going out on his own in the wilds of Hollywood styling.
Brad left Rachel last year and to hear her tell it he ditched her five minutes before the Oscars after stealing half of her client load and 3/4 of her couture department yet the newly independent Brad has his own version of how their split went.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Brad discusses his new show and the departure from Zoe, Inc. “I think people will be surprised to see that when I left I didn’t have a ton of work,” he says of the first episode of his show where he is seen putzing around and searching for jobs — which is very different from Rachel’s styling oriented show The Rachel Zoe Project, filled with apparent manufactured drama. Brad says that’s about the most drama you’ll get from him, “I’m not a table-flipper,” he laughs.
Speaking of Rachel — just what went wrong between the former besties? According to Rachel, Brad told her he wanted to leave the high-paced styling world to live a quiet life with his boyfriend of ten-years, Gary, but then stabbed her in the back by immediately starting his own company and snagging his own show.
Brad’s side of the story is very different (and frankly sounds more plausible). Carefully explaining his perspective and maintaining that he wants to take the high road, Brad is aghast at how Rachel chose to demean him on TV. “I think it’s unfortunate that she decided to take the angle that she did because it’s not the truth.”
“It’s unfortunate that all of the time that I spent with her, and the many lengthy conversations that we had discussing my departure from working with her, that she would choose to character assassinate me on television.” Brad claims he gave Rachel two and a half months notice, trained his replacement (the invisible Jordan?) and even stayed longer to finish uncompleted jobs.
“I just think it’s unfortunate that she feels so competitive with me in a way,” he muses. “Because I left to create a name for myself – and not to ride on any of her coattails.” Brad wouldn’t say why he has been keeping mum about the dissolution of their relationship or if he signed a non-disclosure agreement with the company upon leaving, but he does want to clear his name that he isn’t a client or clothing stealer.
A similar thing happened with another of Rachel’s assistants, Taylor Jacobson, who claims she left the company amicably while Rachel and Rodger continue to slander her to the press and accuse her of stealing. Taylor, like Brad, never really spoke out about the realities of leaving, save to say it wasn’t how Rachel is construing things.
“She’s so incredibly successful, that a stylist starting out – I don’t know what kind of threat that is to her. Maybe she thinks I’m incredibly talented. Who knows,” Brad says of Rachel. Personally, I think she is jealous that Brad’s cheerful and fun personality took off with fans making him the more famous of the two.
“I did reach out to her numerous times, and there was never any response back,” Brad reveals, adding that they often are together at fashion shows and events, but Rachel ignores him. Mature, much?
As for Rachel’s allegations that he tried to steal some of her clients, Brad insists that is not the case. “That’s not the truth. And she knows that’s not the truth. I didn’t even say goodbye to a lot of her clients because I didn’t want anything to be misconstrued as me soliciting anybody.” Brad has styled former Rachel client Demi Moore, but claims Demi sought him out.
“Maybe one day we’ll be able to speak again, but if she chooses to not, then I guess that’s the way it has to be,” he explains. “People are saying, ‘What’s the problem?’ There is no problem from my side. I don’t have any problems with her.”
Rachel clearly does not agree because when asked for comments Rodger Berman (Rachel’s hubs) released the following statement: “Rachel and Rodger are amused by his convenient interpretation of events and have no additional comments.” Wow, Rachel needs to get over herself.
Regardless of the fallout, Brad is glad he got the opportunity. He says Rachel taught him that “it’s possible to do both styling and the show at the same time, but I learned so many more things from her about styling, and working in fashion, and being kind to people.”
And he is optimistic about the future. He is currently styling Christina Ricci and Rashida Jones, getting ready for awards season and he just signed a deal to work with Kate Spade!
[Photo Credit: Anthony Dixon / WENN]
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE BRAD VS. RACHEL SPLIT? WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? DID YOU WATCH IT’S A BRAD, BRAD WORLD? THOUGHTS?
