The Real Dollars Behind Fake Drama

Are TV's deepest pockets on its shallowest soaps? The stars of Bravo and Netflix aren't just dressing the part of Alexis Carrington Colbythey're the genuine article.

- BRIAN MOYLAN

It all started with Sky Tops. When Real Housewives of Orange County premiered in 2006, the biggest fashion statement on the show were these often ruched, often satiny, often sleeveless blouses with embellishment and jewels around the (often surgically enhanced) décolletage.

These days, if you tune into one of the eight Real Housewives programs on Bravo (or the two more on the Peacock streaming service), it's quite a different story: Gucci prints, high-end logos on everything from sunglasses to scarves, and a pair of earrings reading CHA on one lobe and NEL on the other that are so ubiquitous you'd think Andy Cohen gave them out as part of an initiation ritual.

"It has totally changed," says the journalist and Housewives diehard Amy Odell. "Now part of the reason people watch is to see what the ladies are wearing?" It's not just fans who have noticed a shift. Ur-Housewife Bethenny Frankel acidly commented on her podcast that behind the scenes is an army of "glam squads and costumes and hair pieces and a whole fashion show." And yet the fashion show onscreen may be more real than what walks the red carpet, where celebrities more often than not are playing dress-up for the step-and-repeat.

The Housewives don't borrow clothes luxury brands won't lend to them and they don't rent the runway. To keep up appearances, they're buying their Alexis Carrington Colby finery at their own expense." To quote Dolly Parton, it costs a lot of money to look that cheap. "It's all from closet,' says Sutton my Stracke, of Beverly Hills. "When people write, 'Sutton needs to fire her stylist, I just want to write back, 'I am my stylist!"