Exclusive | Desperate NYC fashion exec dyed hair to try to fend off creepy old CEO, 83, with penchant for blondes: lawsuit

A fashion exec was so relentlessly harassed by her creepy octogenarian boss whose “type” was blondes that she dyed her hair brown to appear less attractive, only to end up assaulted and fired, court papers allege.

Stephanie Copin, a 38-year-old mom, says in a new Brooklyn Supreme Court lawsuit that she was hired at Manhattan coat-maker Fleet Street in August 2023 and sacked months later, after CEO and President Manny Haber sexually assaulted her and she couldn’t take the situation anymore.

“I was let go because I wouldn’t give him what he wanted,” Copin recently told The Post.

Haber, 83, started right out of the gate sexually harassing the mother of one, according to the filing and Copin.

During her Aug. 1, 2023, job interview with Haber, he said “Wow, you are [a] sight to see” and asked her to try on clothes, despite the fact she would be hired as an account executive, not a model, the court papers claim.

Within the first week of Copin starting her new job at the women’s coats wholesaler, other employees made comments like, “Oh, what a surprise another blonde,” and, “Oh, he definitely has a type,” the filing says.

When Copin was given a coveted office, an employee commented, “The young blonde gets what she wants by her daddy,” the court papers say.

Haber also would constantly comment on Copin’s appearance, regularly call her after work, frequently ask her out for drinks — which she dodged — and often ask her to try on and model outerwear, using her modeling as a pretext to graze her breasts through the garments, the suit alleges.

Then one night, he lured her to his Manhattan apartment following an after-hours work meeting at The Plaza hotel in Manhattan, says the filing and plaintiff.

Haber told Copin his driver would bring her back to her home in Clifton, NJ, before he was dropped at his apartment, the court papers say.

But when they arrived at Haber’s pad, he cajoled a reluctant Copin to come see his place where, he assured her, she wouldn’t be alone with him because his housekeeper was there, the filing claims.

Once inside, Haber coaxed Copin into his bedroom to show her the view of the city from his window before he accosted her, kissing her, exposing himself to her and then grabbing her hand and forcing her to touch his penis, the court papers allege.

Copin froze during the terrifying attack before it occurred to her that if she didn’t act, she might be raped by him, the filing says.

“She pushed him off and ran out of the room,” the court documents claim.

“I was shaking, it was a blur for me walking out of that building,” Copin said. “I still didn’t understand what had happened to me. I just wanted to get home.”

When she got home, “I couldn’t even look at my son,” Copin said through tears. “I went straight to the shower. [Then] I hid myself in my room.”

Copin said she didn’t tell her husband at the time, as he’d already been suspicious that she was cheating on him because of Haber’s lack of work boundaries with her, including calling her all the time after hours.

She said the incident left a traumatic mark on her, causing her to cry multiple times at work afterward.

Copin said she also later asked him to stop asking her out because “I really like my job and I don’t want this to interfere with my work,” the court documents claim.

“It won’t go well for you, my dear,” he threateningly responded, according to the suit.

“He started being really nasty to me,” Copin said. “[He] never acknowledged what he did, never apologized.

“It was hard to go every day and look at him and him trying to get me in a position where he could once again touch me and grope me,” she explained. “Every day I wanted to quit, every day. He would humiliate me all the time.”

Just a month later, on Nov. 16, 2023, Haber fired Copin the same day he called a company-wide meeting where he “ridiculed” her and called her “incompetent” in front of all the other employees, she told The Post. 

Copin said the incident tore her life apart financially and personally, as she hasn’t been able to find a job since. She is going through a divorce, she added.

“I don’t want this to happen to someone else,” Copin said of one of the reasons she is suing. “This has tormented me. Not only financially, it affected my marriage.”

Copin said she’s been forced to seek treatment in therapy, cries at random times, and has low self-esteem. She added that despite being a former bleached blonde, she’s chosen to remain a brunette because “I don’t even want to be looked at.”

She’s been looking for work since she lost her job, had to move into a home with her sister in Edgewater, NJ, after she and her husband split and is now considering moving to Dallas, Texas, where the cost of living is lower, because she can no longer afford to stay in the tri-state area as a single mom.

“I apply every week,” Copin said of her job search.

Copin’s lawyer, Mark Shirian, told The Post he and his client are “seeking justice and accountability” for her mistreatment at the company.

“Stephanie bravely stood up to inappropriate advances and faced retaliation by Mr. Haber as a result,” Shirian said. “This behavior is unacceptable and a clear violation of her rights.”

Haber and a lawyer for Fleet Street — which is also named in the suit — did not return Post requests for comment.