The executive producer and TV host didn't hold back while reflecting on how the show's changed over the years.
Stepping up their fashion game! The stars of the various Real Housewives series are paragons of style and fashion -- although Andy Cohen feels that wasn't always the case.
The Watch What Happens Live! host and executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise recently spoke with Vanity Fair, and jokingly took note of just how much the reality stars' fashion sense has seemingly evolved since the start of the flagship show.
"In the early of Orange County, the fashion was just terrible," Cohen, 53, told the publication in an interview published on Tuesday. The host explained that, in his eyes, the eponymous housewives didn't have an inclination towards glamming up, at least at the start.
"If you look at the first few years of reunions, Orange County, Atlanta and New York, they were basically wearing -- I don’t even think what they would wear to a cocktail party," Cohen recalled. "I think it was more what they might wear to a PTA meeting."
Cohen added that, "As it’s gone on, the [reunion fashion] has really amped up."
"I think people have loved seeing what they wear now," Cohen shared. "They were meant to be aspirational, and that’s what they are."
With the Real Housewives shows pulling in big ratings and garnering the stars a great deal of attention, Cohen said that, now, fashion choices -- especially for the reunion specials -- have a greater significance for the stars. "A reunion-show dress at this point actually means something," he shared.
Cohen was joined by Project Runway host Christian Siriano, as the two addressed the upcoming crossover between the fashion competition series and the Real Housewives. The special episode will see the remaining designer contestants working for different Housewives on dreaming up show-stopping reunion dresses.
Cohen -- who serves as a guest judge for the cross-over -- says the Housewives' attention to fashion and style makes it a "logical challenge."
"For the Housewives, getting ready for a reunion—this is like their prom dress," Cohen said.
The exciting cross-over -- which features Shannon Beador and Gina Kirschenheiter from The Real Housewives of Orange County, Gizelle Bryant, Karen Huger, and Wendy Osefo of The Real Housewives of Potomac, as well as Luann de Lesseps and Leah McSweeney of The Real Housewives of New York City -- airs Thursday, Jan. 6 on Bravo.
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