Fashion’s Uneasy Relationship with 'Real Housewives'
'Real Housewives' scholar Brian Moylan explains what Rebecca Minkoff's casting on the upcoming season of New York really says about the franchise.
A seismic shift occurred when Jenna Lyons joined the Real Housewives of New York. I’m not sure I can quite describe it other than to say it made a large population of viewers re-discover or discover anew their fandom for the former creative director of J. Crew, who seemed both way too cool for the show and also the ideal foil to the rest of the cast’s wackiness. Jenna is a woman who sees sequins and thinks, jeans, where her castmates see sequins and think, more sequins.
She was introduced by Erin Lichy as, “She likes dill, but not parsley.” And what a ride it was from there. She told America she loves Christmas lights because they’re like sequins for trees (yes). She educated the masses when the cast couldn’t understand the dress code of khaki, black, and metallic that she set for her fondu party, stating: “Khaki is a color, it’s not khakis.”
Real Housewives of New York returns to Bravo on October 1, with Lyons and all of last season’s cast set to come back, along with… Rebecca Minkoff. With Lyons and now Minkoff on the show, it struck me that another seismic shift may be afoot on Planet Housewives: it was once a launching pad for Housewives like Bethenny Frankel and Housewives nepo babies like the Hadid sisters — but has it become a landing pad? For fashion people in particular?
To help answer this big, intimidating question, I called my friend Brian Moylan, who continues to set the gold standard for Housewives coverage at New York magazine, where he recaps the series and writes the popular Housewives Institute Bulletin newsletter. He also wrote the New York Times bestseller The Housewives and holds a special place in my heart as one of the first-ever people to do a Q&A for Back Row.
What was your gut reaction to Rebecca Minkoff being added to the RHONY cast?
I have a personal stake in the game with Rebecca Minkoff, and I'm pissed about it. It was [2013], and as an April Fool's Day joke, Rebecca Minkoff —and this was when she was at the height of Rebecca Minkoff — put a thing out on Twitter being like, “I've been cast on the Real Housewives of New York.”
I was at Gawker, and so we picked it up and we were like, this is crazy, whatever. And then she's like, “April Fool’s, I would never, EW.” And now, ten years later, no one’s buying that same old bag, and she's back on Housewives trying to sell that same old bag. I'm also not that happy that we have a Scientologist on and we're platforming that, especially since, based on the trailer, she doesn't want to talk about it.
But it was interesting to me because once they rebooted it, not only were they focusing on more diversity, which I thought was good and a kind of upscale, aspirational idea of New York, but it was also very fashion-focused. You have Jenna Lyons. You have Ubah, who's a model. You have Jessel Taank who works in fashion PR. You have Sai, who's an influencer. And now you have Rebecca Minkoff. So it's kind of circling this idea of New York fashion insiders, which I think outside of Kell on Earth, no one has ever really done successfully. Whether or not that was successful, who knows?
I think the fashion people who would consider themselves real fashion insiders, or who would consider themselves to understand real fashion insiders, would say, “Well, RHONY isn't it.” You know what I mean?
Yes. They need Jenna Lyons more than Jenna Lyons needs the show, because she lends it an air of sophistication and legitimacy. Like, Oh, if Jenna's doing it, then why shouldn't I do it? And I think that for Rebecca — it seems like she had a big moment, it's kind of faded a bit, and she's trying to reclaim some of that. I agree with you, normally fashion insiders would turn their noses up at this. But the secret that fashion people won't tell you is Housewives move product like crazy.
Examples from the canon?
In Beverly Hills, Crystal Kung Minkoff wears this pair of brown leather pants, and she accuses one of the other Housewives [Sutton Stracke] of being jealous of her. And [Sutton] says, “What am I jealous of, those ugly leather pants?” And then as soon as the episode airs, the pants sell out.
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I did an article for Town and Country a few years ago about where the Housewives get their clothes. And it was the funniest thing ever where one of the Real Housewives of Atlanta said she has the CEO of Fendi on speed dial, and she was having an official Fendi event at her house, and everyone's going to come and shop Fendi. And so I called Fendi PR, and the hoops they were trying to jump through to say, “Well, we did sanction it, but it wasn't official. But yes, we talked to her, but no, we didn't condone this.” It's like, they don't want to be associated with it, but they need the Housewives to sell Fendi.
Brands need these women but also don't want to fully acknowledge them, because they would rather their clothes be on pop stars and models and actresses.
The Cut just did a great story about the “very important clients” who account for 40 percent of luxury fashion sales, and as I keep saying in Back Row, they look like Real Housewives. This makes sense to me, because if you look at the runways now, you tend to see either the super-tacky stuff like Chanel, or ultra-luxe minimalism like The Row. There’s not much in between. And I’m sure that Real Housewives viewers don’t want to see The Row. Unless you can think of a time where that worked that I’m missing?
No, not on Housewives. And you look at the way Housewives dress, especially the ones outside of New York and L.A., and it's like logo, logo, logo, logo, logo. There were multiple Housewives who did confessionals in these earrings where one ear said CHA, and the other ear said NEL. And it's like, that's what the Housewives want. They want double-F Fendi print. They want LV Louis Vuitton. They want you to see that, I spent a lot of money on this. This is expensive. This is designer. Whether or not it's real, whether or not it's rented, whether or not they paid for it, who knows? But that is ultimately advertising for those brands.
Let’s talk about Jenna Lyons in more depth. I read your Vulture recaps of the last season, and I agreed with how you wrote about her — I absolutely loved her on the show. However, one of your commenters pointed something out that has stayed with me: she skirted around a lot of the drama, she kept it classy, so to speak, and while that may have been a point of differentiation for her, it’s not why people watch the show and therefore makes her a suboptimal cast member. What do you think?
Like I said before, the show needs her more than she needs the show, which I think is the exact opposite position of every other Housewife. So I think Jenna can kind of dictate the terms a little bit — “my son's not going to be on camera,” “I'm not going to show my girlfriend.” Things that any other Housewife wouldn't get away with. Because she's skirting the drama and staying out of it, she's getting all the upside of the visibility and the sales, I assume, for her eyelashes and whatever else [she’s selling], without any of the downsides.
I think it's kind of smart for Jenna, but also I think what's good about it is that her not wanting to be in it that much is authentic. And what we really want at the end of the day is just these women to be real and to be themselves. And so I feel like Jenna not being in the drama is more interesting and authentic than those women who show up being like, “I'm going to make the drama,” and are forcing it. Jenna hits this really good sweet spot where she gets to be the voice of reason, that foil to the rest of the Housewives and our surrogate.
I also loved Jessel, who surprised me last season. She ended up in a position I wasn’t expecting her to at ALL after the beginning of the show.
I think that she benefits from that classic Housewives condition of being wonderfully oblivious of herself. She doesn't know how she comes off, but the way she does is really funny. But I always worry about what I call the terrible twos, which is when you see yourself on TV, you see what people react to, and then you come back your second season, you try to lean into it, and you end up destroying the alchemy of your obliviousness.
In the trailer for the upcoming season of RHONY, Rebecca Minkoff says something like, “Oh, I don't care what she said. I started a hundred-million-dollar business.” And it just seems like a huge shift to think that Bethenny Frankel went on the show in order to do that. And now Rebecca Miknkoff’s doing it because she's done that.
Bethenny is really the only one who's made a very successful brand on a Housewife show. Ramona Singer made her fortune in fashion buying overstock and selling it to TJ Maxx. But it's that boring fashion money that we don't care about because there aren't shows or glitz and glamour. I think that's how she knows Jill Zarin, because they were buyers at Macy's together. Teresa Giudice was a buyer at Macy's. And so I think that there's been the boring kind of gross [fashion] jobs, not enough of the Jenna Lyons and the Rebecca Minkoffs — the names that are on the products.
I think it’s safe to say Gigi and Bella Hadid got their start on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, right? Do you see them going back ever? If the show is still going in six years, I could see one of them going on it.
It seems a little bit like fashion Dancing with the Stars, maybe, where it's like, people know your name, but you've lessened a bit in value, and then you go on Housewives and you get that attention back. But I think it's going to end up being a lot more downmarket attention than Gigi and Bella are used to. But look at Lisa Rinna. Lisa Rinna left Housewives, and she's at W magazine parties. She's at Carine Roitfeld’s birthday party.
It often seems to start out in an ironic way — like Marc Jacobs will embrace someone like her, and then there’s a domino effect.
Just based on my own anecdotal evidence, tons of people in fashion at the highest echelons, not just in fashion of media, watch the Housewives. And so they really appreciate these people. I think Erica Jayne had a fashion moment with Moschino and then Christine Quinn from Selling Sunset had a moment. Like you said, it's a little bit edgy, a little bit ironic, but also a little bit sincere, maybe.
Where do things stand with Andy Cohen? Did that wonderful recent New York mag cover story by Jessica Pressler about him worrying about his cancellation put that narrative to bed?
I think the fans never really cared because a lot of the allegations seemed a little weak. However, Leah McSweeney's case [is ongoing]. The Caroline Manzo and Brandi Glanville thing is still happening. I think when it gets to some of the sexual harassment allegations and things like that, they could still be in a lot of danger. So I don't think Andy is necessarily going to lose his job, but I still think that there could be some repercussions for NBC Universal and Bravo and the people involved. I don't think it's going to hurt the show's popularity or how people feel about it, but it may change the way they do some things. But you know how the legal system is — it's going to take forever, and we have to wait to see what happens. But I think they're out of immediate danger.
If you were to fantasy cast the Housewives — is there anyone you think is ripe for joining the show?
I do think that fashion welcomes extreme personalities, and those are the best that we see on Housewives. There are probably plenty of people working in all sorts of fashion jobs who would be great Housewives who might not have risen to the level of having their name on the garments yet, but would be great reality television people. I think Kelly Cutrone would be a great Real Housewife of New York. She was always great on reality television.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Another show that I don't watch but enjoy the hell out of the discourse. LOL!
I like the way Jenna Lyons stays out of the drama. She's the perfect foil for all the madness that happens with everyone else. Let's face it, *someone* needs to stay sane.