Lisa Rinna has abandoned her housewife uniform, trading her sequined button-ups and skinny jeans for over-the-top fashions. These days, you can catch her sitting front-row, dressed in outré sets and mushroom wigs. Or, as she put it herself, “It’s couture, honey. Look at the tag.”
While Rinna admits that new cast members on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills forced her to reevaluate her style, it was her 2023 departure from the Bravo show that jumpstarted her new life in the fashion world. “About two weeks after I left the show, I got a call from my publicist saying, ‘How would you feel about going to Paris in four days for the Kenzo show? They’ve invited you to sit front row,’” she recalls. “I didn’t have anything to do, so I said yes.”
The fall 2023 season proved life-changing for Rinna, who racked up more and more invitations as she stayed in Paris. Since then, she’s become a front row regular, from New York’s buzziest runways—Marc Jacobs and Luar among them—to Demna’s last Balenciaga show in Paris. She isn’t the only rising fashion star in her family: her youngest daughter, Amelia Gray Hamlin, has become a runway regular, though Rinna admits she tries not to cramp her style. “I try not to go to a lot of her shows because I think it’s really important for her to have her own moment,” she says. (Her elder daughter, Delilah, also dabbles in modeling. The sisters were recently photographed by Steven Klein for the September 2025 issue of Vogue.)
Here, Lisa Rinna tells Vogue about her earliest fashion memories, how Erika Jayne made her step up her style game, and the show she dreams about attending.
Vogue: Can you tell me about your earliest memory of fashion?
Lisa Rinna: I grew up in Medford, Oregon, and we used to go to San Francisco to visit my grandmother and they had an I. Magnin there. My earliest memories were shopping at I. Magnin with my mom and just being enamored by the fashion and just the beauty in the store. Then I got my first Seventeen, Mademoiselle, and Vogue when I was 16. That really then transformed me because I would get it every month and it would be my escape into that I. Magnin world that I discovered with my mom.
How did you dress when you were younger?
My mom, as I was growing up, dressed me in a way that was very fashionable—Florence Eiseman, beautiful little dresses. I’ll never forget, when I was in the second grade, we moved to Oregon and I was wearing this little Izod dress that was really, really short and everybody made fun of me. I’ve always worn things that were different than what everybody else was wearing. In the sense of fashion, it was cool, but it was too much for where I lived.
You mention the magazines and I. Magnin, but have there been any predominant fashion inspirations in your life?
When Tom Ford released his Gucci collection in 1994, that was groundbreaking. And also Ralph Lauren’s campaigns back in the late ’70s, early ’80s, when Clotilde was the model that really changed fashion—that was a window into a world that I’d never seen before. I think we all aspired to it, everyone at the time. I was just watching [Ralph Lauren’s] documentary on the plane and I thought, “You know what? That was a big moment in my life, when his campaigns came out.” And same with Tom Ford Gucci. Those were all transformative moments. And when I discovered Alaïa. Harry [Hamlin] bought me my first Alaïa dress. Those were all moments that I can really point out as fashion turning points in my mind.
Do you still have that Alaïa dress?
I sure do. I have the lace bandage dress. It’s unbelievable. And I have a couple of the Tom Ford Guccis from 1996 with the gold on the belt. They’re my treasured possessions. There’s a couple things that I’ve sold over the years and I’m just kicking myself. What was I thinking? I don’t know!
Oh no! What have you sold?
I sold one of the T-shirts that was red velvet with shoulder pads and the shoes that were the G’s with the metal heel. After I was pregnant, my foot grew and I didn’t know that your foot goes back after you have the babies usually. Oh my God, I still kick myself to this day. I’m going to find them. I’ll rebuy them somewhere—someone’s got them.
What is the best fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
Just to be authentic and to go with whatever I feel. I loved Jackie Onassis and I love Kate Moss’s style, and those women just did what they felt and they were authentic to who they are. And I think that’s the key in fashion, and in life: to be authentic.
Is there any fashion advice you remember giving to your daughters?
No, because I think it’s just by example. I’ve watched them come into their own and have their own style, and both of them are very different. And I think, by them seeing how authentic I could be in my fashion, they picked that up. I don’t think I ve ever said anything to them directly other than just have fun and be kind.
You look like you’ve been having a lot of fun lately. I loved the dress you wore to the Las Culturistas Awards.
Me too. I was so honored to wear Schiaparelli for the first time. Those moments where you find something that fits right away and you’re like, okay, this is exactly what I was envisioning—that to me is such fun.
Can you tell me a little bit about how you started this fashion evolution that you’ve been going through over the last couple years?
It happened super accidentally. I was dabbling in it on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at the very end. Erika Jayne arrived on the show with her style and her glam team, and it shook us all up. We were like, oh shoot, now we have to really step it up. That opened me up to playing and wearing some Balenciaga and wearing some wigs. Then Dorit [Kemsley] came along and it was like, game over. You guys better show up with something great or you’re going to be a loser. That was kind of how I think we all felt. We were like, oh damn, now the bar’s been set higher.
About two weeks after I left the show, I got a call from my publicist saying, “How would you feel about going to Paris in four days for the Kenzo show? They’ve invited you to sit front row.” I didn’t have anything to do, so I said yes, and they flew me to France and they put me up at the George V, and that was was it. That changed everything. I went to the show and I was like, okay, this is the greatest thing ever. I ended up staying in Paris and people started to invite me to other shows because they saw that I was there. I just kept saying yes. I don’t ever want it to end.
I feel like people really underestimate how far you can get by just saying yes.
It’s the truth! Yes! I mean, think about it: If I hadn’t been able to do that, I think there would’ve been a completely different trajectory for me. I think that people didn’t expect the announcement of my leaving the show, so I got a lot of press. Then, in getting a lot of press, Kenzo must have seen it and said, oh, let’s have her front row. I feel like it was really meant to be, and I’ve been chomping at the bit for that to happen for a long time. I’ve really taken the opportunity and run with it because it truly is my passion and my joy.
What’s a show where you thought to yourself, “Thank God I didn’t miss this”?
Marc Jacobs’ show in New York was such a thrill. Demna’s last Balenciaga show, obviously. Seeing my daughter Amelia walk in the Jean Paul Gaultier when Ludovic [de Saint Sernin] was the guest designer. She blew my mind. I try not to go to a lot of her shows because I think it’s really important for her to have her own moment. We keep it separate. I go to my shows and then if I get to go to one of her shows, that’s a big bonus.
Do you have a bucket list show you’d love to see?
Miu Miu. Hands down.
