The former model who identified in court as “Jane Doe 1” while accusing Guess mogul Paul Marciano of sexual assault on Thursday outed herself in a dramatic press conference.
“My name is ‘Jane Doe 1’ and I am Amanda Rodriguez,” she said at the end of prepared, on-camera remarks about her claims that Marciano, a titan in the fashion industry, sexually assaulted her in early 2020. “I have lived in fear about coming forward with my identity in public.”
The press conference, organized by Rodriguez’s lawyer Lisa Bloom, featured speeches from others who’ve accused the embattled Guess executive of sexual misconduct. Eileen Toal, who last year told The Daily Beast that Marciano forced her to perform oral sex on him back in 1983; former Guess model Gwen Van Meir, who accused the mogul of unwanted touching and kissing during an overseas photo shoot; an ex-model identified in court as “Jane Doe 3,” who sued Marciano last year alleging he lured her to a hotel room and sexually assaulted her; and Chris Applebaum, a music video director and photographer who said he has personally witnessed Marciano sexually harassing models.
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Guess and Marciano have denied all claims against him. The fashion exec stepped down from the company in 2018 amid multiple sexual-harassment claims from various women, including supermodel Kate Upton. Less than a year later, however, Guess quietly reinstated him in as a chief creative officer—despite an internal probe concluding he exercised “poor judgment” and put “himself in situations in which plausible allegations of improper conduct could, and did, arise.”
“As a new model I was so excited to be working for this company,” Rodriguez recalled of her experience with Guess. “I had some terrible experiences I did not know how to deal with at the time. I was confused and lived in denial and I was incredibly afraid to speak up. I suffer every day tremendously. I fear I will never be the same person again. I don’t wish this type of agony or suffering on anyone.” She broke down in tears while saying she suffers from “suicidal thoughts.”
Rodriguez publicly outing herself as “Jane Doe 1” came after months of Marciano and Guess have not-so-subtly threatened to reveal her identity during battles in arbitration court.
“They will not let me have my day in court,” Rodriguez lamented during the press conference. “I have to fight in arbitration.”
The on-camera event, which streamed live on Bloom’s public Facebook page, comes days after Legion Partners, a stakeholder in Guess Inc., publicly demanded the fashion brand dump both Marciano and his brother Maurice, whom the investment firm said has enabled his younger sibling’s alleged misconduct from the start.
In a presentation released to shareholders, which The Daily Beast obtained and reviewed, Legion singled out female board members like Laurie Ann Goldman, who often speaks about the empowerment of women, to remove Marciano, “in keeping with her reputation as a strong supporter of women.”
Guess responded last week with a lengthy statement. “Legion Partners’ claim that the Board has 'turned a blind eye' to allegations regarding Paul Marciano is demonstrably false,” the company wrote. “The Guess Board takes allegations of sexual impropriety or unethical conduct extremely seriously.” The fashion retailer added: “The Board’s decision to continue to employ Paul Marciano and re-nominate him as a director was informed by the findings of the months-long Special Committee investigation, which was determined to be more comprehensive, conclusive and accurate than anything reported in the media or elsewhere.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast on Thursday, Shawn Holley, a lawyer representing Marciano, branded the press conference “The latest publicity stunt by Ms. Bloom” and said it “presents a fabricated narrative, an incomplete version of the facts and omits significant exculpatory information. Simply put, Lisa Bloom is up to her old tricks, trying her case in the court of public opinion because she cannot prevail in a court of law.”
