It all started with a Saint Laurent heart jacket and a dream.
Last month, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City welcomed its newest cast member, Bronwyn Newport. Like a snowflake wrapped in luxury fashion, Newport made her series debut at Lisa Barlow’s “Besos” Valentine’s Day party, where she was dressed in a heart-shaped fuzzy jacket.
Fashion fans online quickly recognized it as the heart-shaped Saint Laurent coat from the brand’s fall 2016 collection, which became a viral sensation when Rihanna wore it that same year. But fellow cast member Brittani Bateman called it a “costume” as she tried to complement the outfit while seated nearby Mary Cosby, another major fashion lover.
Newport was quick to set her straight: “Costume? You can't come to this couch with Mary and I and call it costume.” She continued, “This is Saint Laurent. And, um, there’s three of them. I have one, Rihanna has one, and there's one in a museum."
Fashion nerds online were quick to question Newport’s statement. Writer Evan Ross Katz, for example, commented on X, saying: “If only it were true.” (A Saint Laurent rep confirmed to InStyle that more than three of the heart-shaped jackets were produced. InStyle reached out to Newport for comment and she noted she did not intend to imply there were only three of the coats, explaining much of her phrasing in that scene was lost in editing and mic issues.)
This is the type of sartorial flex (and petty drama) Newport is bringing to an already over-the-top franchise, in which goggles-like sunglasses, feathered blazers, and crystal masks have become the order of the day. But Newport, who described her style as "funny chaos," is peddling the gas to the max on the franchise’s ostentatious fashion, threading a fine line between sartorial power and Housewives cosplay.
Newport wears a Dolce & Gabbana yellow bra-and-panties set, styled with a matching puffer coat and boots, with the same casualness that she sports an Alaïa asymmetrical sleeve sweater at home or a green puffer coat-and-skirt set from Wardrobe NYC. In her confessionals, she’s worn everything from a Christopher John Rogers multi-color polka dot corset to a Christian Siriano red dress with a geometric orbiting neckline (you really have to see it to get it) that she said made her look like a “Tim Burton character.”
From the get-go, Newport has been hellbent on proving she’s a fashion girl, boasting a die-for luxury fashion wardrobe and presenting herself as one of those richer-than-rich women who attend Paris Fashion Week for pleasure, not work. And she expresses all that through her wardrobe.
“It’s unabashedly maximalist,” says Housewives fashion chronicler Dorran, who runs an Instagram account dedicated to identifying the items worn on the show. “Her fashion adds another level of entertainment to the show.” Brian Moylan, author of The Housewives: The Real Story of the Real Housewives, says that Newport is a new kind of character for the franchise at a time when fashion (and subsequently, the industry) is becoming a protagonist in the Bravo-verse. “She’s a bridge between the more upscale Housewives and the Salt Lake City ladies,” Moylan says.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City became a quick hit since premiering in November 2020, largely thanks to its larger-than-life personalities and mind-blowing plotlines (including an on-camera arrest attempt). Together, they sounded like a corny joke: A Chicargo-born jewelry designer, a Pentecostal pastor married to her ex step-gradfather and a Mormon tequila entrepreneur walk into a room, what happens?
The outfits have fitted these outrageous storylines, too: Lisa Barlow (the Mormon tequila entrepreneur) in a fur-collared denim jacket by Saint Laurent; Meredith Marks (the Chicargo-born jewelry designer) in a pink feathery Christian Cowan dress; and Mary Cosby (the Pentecostal pastor married to her ex step-grandfather) in distressed leather boots by Givenchy.
“I did not in my wildest dreams expect this level of fashion from Salt Lake City,” says Dorran. “It was all so dramatic and, at times, absolutely ridiculous from the beginning and it has only gotten better.”
Enter Newport, whose onscreen style is already becoming an iconic Housewives phenomenon in less than five episodes. Before joining the franchise, Newport was a saleswoman-turned-influencer with a close relationship with the fashion industry. Christian Siriano recently went on Watch What Happens Live to shoutout Newport for being a longtime client, contrary to other housewives, who he claims “don't pay.”
Even before becoming reality TV fodder, Newport was attending New York and Paris Fashion Week, as well as the couture shows, most recently as a guest of brands like Valentino, Gaurav Gupta, and Carolina Herrera. She owns designer fashion—like the Loewe sandals with candle-shaped heels from the brand's spring 2022 collection—that most fashion editors lust after. She attended the much-talked-about Oscar de la Renta show that was only open to clients (if you know you know). By joining Housewives, Newport’s sartorial prowess is building a new kind of fashion legacy for Bravo.
Contrary to what’s known about the franchise today, Moylan says that what we see now onscreen is worlds apart from the housewife-next-door style early cast members wore when the series premiered back in the early 2000s. “When they started they didn’t really give fashion. The ladies wore jeans to the reunions,” Moylan says. Nowadays, it’s more common to see couture on the reunion episodes than denim, while cast members like Real Housewives of Dubai star Chanel Ayan and Real Housewives of New York newcomer Jenna Lyons are pushing the boundaries of what Housewives fashion can be.
Moylan points to Ayan as a more extreme example of Housewives’ unabashed maximalism. She wears outrageous outfits for the most banal scenarios, like higher-than-high platforms to play mini golf. Then, there’s Lyons, a designer and former president at J. Crew who was a mainstream fashion icon before the Housewives franchise rose to popularity. She wears more obscure designer goods with Miu Miu button-down cropped shirts and Simone Rocha bubble dresses that would be considered cool at a New York City fashion party, not necessarily BravoCon.
In this Housewives fashion tree, Newport would be a lovechild of these two. And while fellow cast members Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, and Mary Cosby have played the fashion game in the show well so far, Newport is fast becoming the sartorial queen of Salt Lake City. After all, why do we watch Housewives if not for petty drama over a $15,000 jacket? “Nothing is more deliciously petty,” says Dorran. “[Newport] knows she looks whacky because she desires to look whacky.”
Hang her in the Louvre!