“Oh, this? This is Balmain.”
It’s a sunny afternoon in New York City, and Bozoma Saint John and I are enjoying a spread of Greek food at Avra in Midtown Manhattan. The lively restaurant is a power-lunch favorite among the many finance, law, and business professionals that work in the neighborhood, and Saint John’s Olivier Rousting-designed bodycon dress is a far sartorial cry from the suits, ties, and sensible pumps that surround us. But the former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and Real Housewife of Beverly Hills wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I tried the gray suit and I still got terrible reviews,” she says of her years spent in high-profile roles at PepsiCo, Apple Music, and Uber. “Here I am, pulling my hair back into a little bun, wearing a button-down shirt and my gray slacks, and I still don’t fit in; I was still louder, bigger, and Blacker than people they’d seen before.”
Eventually, Saint John figured that if she was never going to match the corporate mold, she had might as well dress the way she wanted. By the time she joined Netflix as its CMO in 2020, she’d swapped her gray slacks for studded patent leather pants—and when Bravo came calling a few years later, she was ready to join the ranks of television’s most audaciously dressed women. (See also: Erika Jayne in a scribble-printed blazer and matching hat, or Dorit Kemsley in zebra leggings and a matching sports bra.)
Saint John, however, wanted to do more than flex her colorful, designer-filled wardrobe. After settling on a custom Mimmy Yeboah gown for her RHOBH debut, she committed to wearing Black designers exclusively whenever she was on camera. “I want the audience to know that Black girls can own expensive bags and shoes and outfits,” she says, “but what is that going to say? I can show up with all the things [my castmates] have, and yes, maybe that’s a statement within itself, but why not make a different statement?”
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While filming, however, the Malibu home that Saint John shared with her teenage daughter was lost in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires—and with it, many of her belongings, including some she acquired with her late husband. “I know it sounds weird because it’s like, Oh well, that’s your beach house, but we had a lot of stuff over there,” she says. “I would call it more like my family home—my wider family home—because I had a keypad on the door so everybody could come in. Right before the fires, my sister and her fiancé had been staying there, and before that my other sister was over there. My nail tech stayed there for New Year’s; one of my best friends, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, went there to write her book proposal. It was home to a lot of people.”
Though the experience has understandably shaken Saint John, she’s as cheerful as ever over lunch. “I’m having a great time,” she says of her foray into the Real Housewives franchise. “This is my time to show up exactly as who I am.”
Below, Saint John shares more about fashion, loss, and becoming a Bravolebrity.
Vogue: It’s so nice to chat with you. We’re so sorry about your home—how have you and your daughter been since the fire?
Bozoma Saint John: Thank you. We’re doing okay; she’s doing okay. She’s 15 and this is a very devastating and unsettling situation to be in. I don’t know how to give her the confidence that everything will be fine when our home burned down to the ground; I don’t have that confidence right now. So it’s difficult, but she has other friends who have been impacted, so she has a community to commune with and help balance some of those fears.
Well, I would never guess that your confidence is rattled.
Thank you.
So tell me, how did the opportunity to join Real Housewives of Beverly Hills come about? And were you a fan of the show beforehand?
I have been a fan of [the Atlanta offshoot] forever, and I watched a little bit of New York, a little bit of Miami, a little bit of Potomac. But I never really watched Beverly Hills. I liked Atlanta because I was like, Oh, those are my girls. And it also helped that I actually know Cynthia Bailey for real. But in any case, when I left corporate and published my book, I was on sabbatical and was like, What the hell am I going to do? I took a few meetings about potential jobs but nothing felt like anything I wanted to do. So I decided to build my hair and beauty company, and in the middle of that came the opportunity for the Housewives. It was kind of funny, because they were like, “We’ve been trying to get to you for years.” But I wouldn’t have done it in the past—I had too much going on.
From what you had seen of Beverly Hills, what was your take on the show’s fashion?
I love the fashion of the Beverly Hills girls. When I was interested in joining I binged all the seasons, and their personalities really show through what they wear. I knew exactly what they were bringing with what they were wearing. I feel like that is taboo to say in some circles, especially in the corporate space, but it’s not in this space.
When you joined the cast, how did the idea to wear exclusively Black designers come about?
I’ve always been intentional about what I wear, so for the very first look, at Sutton’s Surrealist Ball, I was like, Oh shoot, I got to show up—that’s got to be custom. The only person I trusted to do it the way I needed it to be done was Mimmy Yeboah, a designer in Ghana. Mimmy has designed for me before, so she knows all my measurements and usually gets it right, but I was still like, “Girl, I can’t come out here with even half-an-inch off.” So she flew from Ghana, I flew from LA, and we did a fitting here in New York. We went our separate ways, she fixed some things, and then flew the dress to me in LA.
And then from there it just snowballed. I was just like, you know what? I think every single look—it doesn’t matter if I’m at home cooking with my daughter or if I’m going to lunch or I’m going to the ball—I don t care where I’m going, it’s going to be head-to-toe Black. And that’s going to be my contribution. That’s the statement I’m going to make.
What does this look like in terms of planning? Did you get a filming schedule and plan all your looks ahead of time?
Girl, I wish it was that organized! It would’ve made styling much easier. I would say that I know what I’m doing a couple of days beforehand. So then, yes, I can be like, What am I going to wear to lunch with so-and-so? But it just meant that I had to just continue to call in outfits. Thankfully, a lot of them were already in my closet.
I got a rack and then pulled out everything in my closet that was by Black designers, and then pulled out all my jewelry by Black designers too. The challenge was that three weeks into filming I was like, Damn, I’ve worn 40 outfits already. Where do I go now? So then I was calling designers that I knew to be like, Girl, what you got? Can you send me something? Or I’d go to their websites and be like, Okay, I need to buy this. It did become a little bit of a challenge as the weeks went on because I didn’t have enough in my own closet and I wanted to continue. But it also pointed out that I don’t know enough Black designers. I need to know more.
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I notice you have quite a bit of Ivy Park.
Yes. Somebody on Twitter was like, “We know she’s part of the Beyhive! Look at her. This is like the fifth Ivy Park outfit she’s worn.” But they’re so easy because they match already. So you put it on and people think you put in some kind of effort.
You’ve worn lots of designer, too.
Yeah, Dapper Dan made a set custom for me when he was partnering with Gucci, so that’s something I already owned. I came up to Harlem and he helped me pick the fabric, and we picked the appliqués—the whole thing. I carry Chanel, but it’s a bag from Pharell’s collab. And I wear Louis, but it’s got to be Virgil.
You came onto the show very well-versed in fashion, but has your intentionality about your looks been a learning experience at all?
Definitely. For the promo shoot, the theme was Old Hollywood. And I was like, well, obviously I’m going to do old Black Hollywood. I was looking up photos of Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt and I was like, Who designed the dresses that they’re wearing? And that’s how I found Zelda Wynn Valdes.
Yes—the woman who designed the Playboy bunny costume.
Don’t make me hit you with my napkin! I did not know Zelda. And I felt so ridiculous; I’m a fashion girl and I don’t know Zelda Wynn Valdes?
Well Black designers aren’t always part of the fashion history conversation.
They’re not; we don’t talk about them enough. I went down a rabbit hole, found a whole bunch of Zelda’s designs, sent them to Mimmy, and said, “Okay, girl, here we go—we’re going to make something referencing these designs; I like the bodice here, I like the gloves here, I like the fishtail there.” So, again, it was a collaboration. I don’t want to throw no shade, but other people went and bought their dress from somebody. And I was like, no, I’m wearing this for Zelda.
Your sense of style has a flair for the dramatic. Where does that come from?
My mother. My mother is a fashion designer by [training], but she never got a chance to pursue it professionally. But she’s a fashionable person and she was a homemaker. When she married my dad and had me and my three sisters, in order to keep herself busy, she sewed out of a little studio in our house. So, I’ve always been around sewing machines and fabrics and patterns and needle and thread. When I was 16, she gave me a sewing machine for Christmas. She and I designed my prom dress, and I designed my wedding dress and she sewed it. So, I have never been afraid of inserting myself into my fashion.
And sewing your own clothes—or having garments custom-made or tailored—is very common in Ghanaian culture.
It’s very Ghanaian. I don’t know how many times somebody has been like, “Oh, I don’t like those jeans because the waist is too big.” And I’m just like, “You don’t have a tailor? Why can’t you just take it to a tailor and get the waist taken in? Or give it to me—I have a sewing machine, I’ll do it.” I’ve always felt that I should be in my clothes, not just wearing them.
Your nails are also quite fab. Who does them?
Her name is Quisa and she’s amazing. We’ve been together for six years. We once did 10 Black girls, each with a full head of hair, and then she drilled little holes in my nails and we put earrings on them.
Which Housewives’ personal style resonates with you the most?
Gosh, I’ve loved so many people’s style. I don’t know if Dubai is coming back, but Chanel Ayan is one of my favorites. I think she’s completely out of her mind, and I love it. She did a confessional once where two leopard heads were sticking off her shoulders. I looked at it and I was just like, This girl is nuts. But I love it so much. Funny enough, I like Erica Jayne’s style a lot, too. She sticks to her lane and it hits every single time. Those are my two favorites, probably.
Last question: Are you having fun being a Real Housewife?
I’m having a great time—I really am. I enjoy the women, I enjoy the banter, and the conflicts are really fascinating to me. Also, you know what’s so funny? For the first time ever, all of the women in the main cast are single or separated. It’s great to be a single mom who is raising a Black 15-year-old girl, and getting to show what that’s like on TV.
This conversation has been edited and condensed. All photos courtesy of Bozoma Saint John.
