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\n Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Getty, Kevin Mazeski\/NBC Universal\n <\/p>\n
The mere sight of Rachel Zoe saying \u201cI\u2019m Rachel Zoe\u201d was enough to fill the cavernous room inside a Las Vegas convention center with shrieks and cheers. It happened at last month\u2019s BravoCon \u2014 in which 30,000 of the network\u2019s most fervent fans descended onto the Caesars Forum for a packed three-day schedule of panels, selfies, and merch shopping<\/a>. A sneak peek of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills<\/a> season-15 premiere, which airs December 4, played above the \u201cGold\u201d stage.<\/p>\n \u201cYou may or may not remember me from Bravo<\/a>,\u201d Zoe teased from the massive screen, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve lived here before.\u201d Oh, they remember.<\/p>\n Earlier that day, I\u2019d watched as dozens, no, hundreds of fans lined up to get a picture with Zoe, who wore a vintage Dior fur coat and 16 Arlington minidress with Rachel Zoe Collection trousers underneath. As Zoe\u2019s \u201cglam\u201d fixed her hair before the photo call with her label-loving (and accent-swapping) co-star Dorit Kemsley<\/a>, her petite frame towered in chunky Valentino heels (they were a half-size too small, but so worth the ice bath her feet required later, I was reassured) and her hands sparkled with Cartier and David Webb rings. Before the photo op, a makeshift curtain-covered wall separated us from the many women who\u2019d clearly dressed for the occasion, wearing outfits that channel Zoe\u2019s signature style: bohemian, glamorous, whimsical. When the fans were finally allowed to pose for selfies, Zoe was warm, occasionally making someone\u2019s weekend by complimenting their look \u2014 like a group of girlfriends from Columbus, Ohio, who couldn\u2019t believe they\u2019d met their \u201cstyle icon.\u201d<\/p>\n Bravo fans know Zoe primarily from The Rachel Zoe Project, a show that chronicled her life as a stylist to Hollywood stars from 2008 to 2013. But back when her show began its five-season run, Bravo wasn\u2019t the cultural behemoth it is today. The Bravoverse \u2014 the network\u2019s expansive world of reality shows spearheaded by the Real Housewives franchise \u2014 wasn\u2019t yet fully formed. A huge, glittery convention where adoring fans recite her Zoe-isms (\u201cI die!\u201d \u201cBananas!\u201d \u201cShut it down!\u201d) would have seemed otherworldly.<\/p>\n After the photo op, Zoe and Kemsley stepped outside for some fresh air in what looked like a parking lot, where Kemsley lit up a cigarette. In the distance, two fans spotted them and screamed, practically clawing their way through the fence. Zoe seemed totally unfazed by this; throughout the day she maintained a calm \u201cconfessional tone,\u201d delivering quotable soundbites like she was doing an interview in front of a green screen. She appeared relaxed and unflappable, which is probably a good thing since now she\u2019s on a show known for its \u201cDinner Parties from Hell<\/a>\u201d where the wives frequently go for the jugular.<\/p>\n As I watched Zoe, who wore brown shades to shield her eyes, I was reminded of something I learned from rewatching all 38 episodes of The Rachel Zoe Project in the last few weeks: She doesn\u2019t actually like being in front of the camera. \u201cI was the person that got given the lead in the school play but took the supporting role,\u201d she told me afterward when I pointed this out. \u201cI became a stylist \u2014 that\u2019s a behind-the-scenes job. It was never even a thought in my mind to be in front of the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n Zoe isn\u2019t just back in front of the camera; she\u2019s joining a totally different type of show \u2014 one with a notoriously fickle, fervent, and very online fandom. And she\u2019s choosing to do so when her life is in flux.<\/p>\n Last year, Zoe and her husband of 26 years, Rodger Berman, announced their separation. \u201cEveryone in life called us The Notebook couple, including my sister,\u201d she tells me. \u201cWe used to say we would die next to each other the same way they do in The Notebook.\u201d In this new phase, she\u2019s chosen to let fans back in. \u201cIt\u2019s been 12 years since I finished my show, and what I\u2019ve always said is that I\u2019ll write my next book, or I\u2019ll be on TV again, when I have something meaningful to share.\u201d<\/p>\n Backstage, I tracked down the Bravoverse\u2019s de-facto ruler, Andy Cohen. He started working on The Rachel Zoe Project as an executive producer before he made the move from NBC executive to onscreen talent as the host of the Housewives reunion shows and Watch What Happens Live. What did he see in her? \u201cWell, let\u2019s lead with the fact that she\u2019s one of the foremost stylists in the world. She\u2019s incredibly talented, but she\u2019s also a total character. She\u2019s fun to watch, she\u2019s beautiful, she\u2019s surprising, she\u2019s funny, she\u2019s fresh, she\u2019s aspirational \u2014 and she\u2019s perfect for Bravo.\u201d<\/p>\n Vegas is a fitting setting for BravoCon: Doing reality TV is a gamble, and Bravo\u2019s roster is similarly full of heroes, villains, success stories, and cautionary tales. Zoe tells me that part of the reason why she waited so long to return is because she enjoyed being outside the \u201cjudgment ring.\u201d She\u2019s well aware that there\u2019s every chance people might hate her on RHOBH, and she can\u2019t stop them if they do.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not what happened last time. The Rachel Zoe Project didn\u2019t merely refute the tabloid depictions of Zoe \u2014 we\u2019ll get into that \u2014 it allowed her to control her own story. Consider then her reintroduction to the Bravoverse as simply Zoe doing what she does best: branding. In 2009, she launched The Zoe Report<\/a>, a newsletter covering fashion, beauty, and lifestyle that amassed 750,000 subscribers, which was acquired by BDG media in 2019. And after launching her first ready-to-wear collection in 2011, she now manages over 40 licence extensions of the Rachel Zoe name, from womenswear to eyewear and baby clothes, wallpaper, sunglasses, fragrance, rugs, and jewelry. More recently, she\u2019s launched her podcast, Climbing in Heels<\/a>, and posts outfit breakdowns on TikTok<\/a>, too. As she steps back onto Bravo on her own, is this the next phase in a rebranding campaign? \u201cTo be honest, it wasn\u2019t that calculated,\u201d she says. \u201cThe reality of it \u2014 no pun intended \u2014 is that I\u2019ve really always been the brand. The brand is me. The brand is my name, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Zoe comes across as quintessentially Hollywood, but she actually grew up on the other side of the country in suburban New Jersey. Her father, Ron Rosenzweig, was an entrepreneur, and she grew up surrounded by art that her parents collected. (Professionally, Zoe goes by her middle name.) After college, she moved to New York and got her first job at the now-defunct YM magazine, eventually working her way up to senior fashion editor. Looking back, Zoe says she started styling at around 8 years old, when she would meticulously plan outfits for her sister and her friends. But it was during her time at YM when she first started getting freelance styling gigs. \u201cI was making $22,000 a year, and I did my first freelance job and made, like, $20,000,\u201d she remembers. \u201cSo I was like, Okay, need to go down this path.\u201d Zoe credits Tommy Hilfiger with her \u201cbig break\u201d in styling. \u201cHe put me on a two-week job with the highest stakes of anything I\u2019d ever done,\u201d she says, sounding vaguely stressed by the memory of working on the ad campaign.<\/p>\n When Zoe moved to Los Angeles in 2002, she leaned further into what she would become best known for: styling Hollywood stars. Jennifer Garner was her first celebrity client, followed by Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Demi Moore, Eva Mendes, Anne Hathaway, and\u00a0others. She initially thought reality TV would be a way of showcasing the work of the designers she loves. \u201cThey\u2019re my celebrities,\u201d she says, remembering how she \u201calmost died \u2014 literally\u201d when she met Karl Lagerfeld. But she also wanted to show people the real her at a time when the media had turned her into a caricature.<\/p>\n By the mid-aughts, Zoe had become famous in her own right. (Even today, she\u2019s probably one of the only celebrity stylists that a moderately online person could actually name.) The tabloids were obsessed with her appearance and blamed her for the then rise of super-thin celebrities. (Several of Zoe\u2019s clients \u2014 most famously Nicole Richie \u2014 lost weight after they started working with her.) Rumors flew, including that Zoe was importing diet pills and horse pills<\/a> for her clients to slim them down. \u201cI might have been dressing Lindsay, Nicole and Mischa, and they were all very thin,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I was also dressing all these other women, some of whom were having babies or had completely different body types and shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, she continues, the actresses she worked with were equally bewildered, telling her \u201cYou never let us leave your studio without eating!\u201d Even talking about it now, Zoe still seems aggrieved. \u201cI\u2019ve never done a drug in my life. What were people talking about? It was so incomprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back, then, why does she think she became the unofficial face of size zero? \u201cWhen there\u2019s nothing to dig up, it\u2019s more fun to make it up. I was someone who was the least controversial person living this very controversial life \u2014 and they will create something if they can\u2019t find something.\u201d Today, being a Real Housewife is about being subjected to a similar level of scrutiny. Fans frequently find all kinds of dirt on the cast and monitor their every social media like and follow. They expect these women to lay it all out there and get mad when they don\u2019t do it to their exact specification. And then there\u2019s the cast, who are known to leak stories during filming and self-produce their own story lines \u2014 which may or may not resemble reality.<\/p>\n When she started filming RHOBH over the summer, Zoe was struggling to see Berman as a friend. \u201cWhat you saw in my show was real. It really was,\u201d she says, telling me it was gut-wrenching to see a flashback of her and Berman happily together during the season premiere. Now, she\u2019s navigating a delicate balance between having her own feelings without turning her children against their father and encouraging them to have a relationship without sugarcoating things, either. Is she worried that the show will upset that balance? \u201cAll of it. Of course. All of it,\u201d she admits. The fact that her children would be watching informed every choice and soundbite she made on camera. \u201cThey\u2019re going to see this and they\u2019re going to know this,\u201d she continues. \u201cBut at the same time, they kind of really already do. I can\u2019t get anything past them.\u201d<\/p>\n Zoe is clear that she was the one who ended their marriage. \u201cI\u2019ve always lived under the sort of idea that people are who they are \u2014 that they don\u2019t change,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I actually think that is not true. People can in fact change.\u201d Berman stepped out with a new girlfriend<\/a> four months after their separation was announced. (Zoe swerves<\/a> when asked whether there was an overlap, but I\u2019ll leave it to the comments section to speculate.) In any case, it\u2019s easy to get the sense from the way she speaks about \u201cmy ex\u201d (she never uses his name) that it was over before it was officially over, and for her part, she\u2019s \u201cabsolutely\u201d dating and hopes to find a \u201cmind match\u201d who can make her laugh and smile. These unexpected changes are a large fraction of what motivated her to join Housewives \u2014 to show people that it \u201creally doesn\u2019t matter\u201d if you\u2019re the Notebook couple. \u201cI don\u2019t mean that in a bitter way,\u201d she says. \u201cBut your life can change on a dime. It can change when the wind blows. I have seen it happen to countless people in my life. And there are things that, without question, changed drastically in our marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n When I asked Cohen about Zoe becoming a Real Housewife, he said she was in the driver\u2019s seat. \u201cShe actually asked,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when she asks, you have to pay attention.\u201d Zoe remembers that the conversation initially started on a call with executive producer, Alex Baskin. About an hour later, she tentatively asked her sons about it, and to her surprise they were encouraging. (\u201cThey said, \u2018Mom, you have to speak your true feelings. And whatever those are, we\u2019re going to hear them.\u2019\u201d) Later that evening, she called Cohen, by which point she was convinced that this was an opportunity for her. \u201cTo me, it was such a leap,\u201d Cohen told me. \u201cShe had fronted and executive produced her own show, which was really about her business. But this is really showcasing her in an incredibly transitional moment in her life, in a vulnerable moment. It was raw and real of her to sign up, and it\u2019s a really interesting place to rejoin her story.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that filming is over, I wonder how Zoe felt joining an ensemble cast where she was very much not the boss. It was easier, she says, not having a whole show \u2014 and a nine-month shooting schedule, which she did twice while pregnant \u2014 resting on her shoulders. \u201cNot having the pressure all on me to hold, carry, and produce every single thing is nice,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m so sick of myself \u2014 my life and my voice \u2014 that it\u2019s fun for me to be in other people\u2019s lives. I\u2019m so over myself.\u201d On the cast, she is good friends with Kathy Hilton and already knew her sister, Kyle Richards, the last remaining OG cast member. But she didn\u2019t know the other women and actually made a point of not watching any of the show beforehand. \u201cMy preparation for it was not preparing \u2014 truthfully,\u201d she says. \u201cOne thing about me is I can never be scripted. Had I watched before I went in, I would have made so many judgments about these women.\u201d<\/p>\n Back at BravoCon, after Kemsley had finished her well-earned cigarette, we zoomed on a golf cart toward the RHOBH panel. If you ask Kemsley, Zoe is \u201cdefinitely one of the best casting decisions\u201d for the show. \u201cEveryone knows her as a fashion girl \u2014 and she\u2019s incredible, she\u2019s creative, she\u2019s stunning, she\u2019s amazing. But what I love most is how open and transparent she is and how supportive she is of other women.\u201d Zoe was a shoulder to lean on as Kemsley also navigates a high-profile divorce. \u201cUnfortunately, in this group,\u201d she said, \u201cI haven\u2019t felt the support that I would have liked to feel from a lot of the other women.\u201d<\/p>\n When the cart dropped us off, we found ourselves in the inner depths of the Caesars Forum, where catering staff buzzed around and piles of used dishes were everywhere. We reached an elevator, which was so visibly dirty when it arrived it made me internally gasp on behalf of Zoe\u2019s pristine white outfit. \u201cI don\u2019t think we need to do this,\u201d she said immediately, staring down the oily substance on the floor. Soon, we found an alternative elevator, where RHOC\u2019s Heather Dubrow floated in, looking ethereal, and asked: \u201cHow was the season?\u201d It\u2019s at this moment that I realized that I\u2019d grazed my knee while getting out of the buggy and blood is slowly trickling down my leg as I stand next to Zoe in white <\/strong>vintage Dior. I die.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before the RHOBH panel, the cast assembled on leather couches backstage. With Zoe out of earshot, once again getting her makeup tended to, I wondered what they thought about her. Bozoma Saint John, Netflix\u2019s former chief marketing officer turned sophomore RHOBH Housewife, quickly pointed to Zoe\u2019s staying power. \u201cAs a businesswoman, she is tried and true and tested and still here,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is a very difficult thing to do. I\u2019m always impressed by a woman who\u2019s been able to hold on to her brand \u2014 and her power \u2014 for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Erika Jayne told me that she values Zoe\u2019s sense of perspective.\u201cShe has a lot of experience, not only on-camera but in this town and around this world,\u201d she said, before bringing up the looks. \u201cSomething else that people need to know is that Rachel Zoe sleeps in her pumps! I\u2019ve never seen her without a full look. What you see on-camera is what we see when we\u2019re off-camera. And that says a lot, because she is fully committed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s just so glamorous,\u201d Jennifer Tilly, a \u201cfriend-of\u201d on the show, told me, shimmering in pink Valentino and sparkling jewels. \u201cAnd I noticed that after Rachel came on the scene, some of the other girls all started turning up dressed like her, because Rachel Zoe complimenting your outfit feels like you\u2019re getting anointed by the pope!\u201d<\/p>\n Moments later, Zoe walked out for the RHOBH panel to the loudest shrieks from the audience. It felt like the second coming of one of Bravo\u2019s brightest, earliest stars.<\/p>\n A few days later, I catch up with Zoe over Zoom once she\u2019d had the chance to digest her first BravoCon. \u201cIt\u2019s indescribable,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel like I went into this alternate universe \u2014 I entered the Bravoverse! It was shocking and overwhelming and emotional.\u201d But she wasn\u2019t remotely nervous stepping out in front of thousands of people at the RHOBH panel, telling me she\u2019s spoken in front of bigger Vegas crowds before.<\/p>\n I\u2019d say Zoe bordered on serene, actually, which is a stark change from the last time she was on TV, when she was pulled in a million directions and her life seemed to be defined by its chaos. She explains the shift as being at peace with the bigger decisions she\u2019s made that brought her to this moment. \u201cAt the end of the day, women, for the most part, don\u2019t make impulsive decisions about leaving a marriage or breaking up their family,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was a lot of time that I spent with this, subconsciously, without even realizing what that was doing to my overall being. Of course there are tough days, but when I finally made that decision to leave, it was the most freeing, happy, transformative time of my life almost instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s also simply a different person than the one who first sat in a confessional chair in 2008. For one, she\u2019s a mother. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t survive any of this without my boys,\u201d she tells me at one point. In fact, all roads lead back to Skyler and Kaius throughout our conversation, whether we\u2019re talking about her decision to go back on TV, join TikTok, or even what she wears.<\/p>\n And as she enters a new phase in her life as a single working mom (and now a Real Housewife), it feels like Zoe is finally embracing the spotlight. She\u2019s returning to Bravo with clear intentions \u2014 and her next project. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to be Mother Teresa. I\u2019m not trying to be a martyr,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if I can help women who are going through the hardest time in their lives and make them feel seen, understood, and supported, then I\u2019ve done my job here. Like, let\u2019s go through this shit together.\u201d<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n