The Fascination With Jenna Lyons + A Debrief On The Real Housewives Of NY
Jenna Lyons has been a household name in fashion for a while now. She got her start by working her way up as an intern at J. Crew. In 2010, Lyons was promoted to executive creative director of the iconic brand, which catapulted Lyons into a new realm of stardom. J. Crew is a brand that every millennial has idolized at some point in their lives. The brand is still held in a somewhat favorable light. As the head of creative and fashion at J. Crew, Jenna taught us that fashion, business, and the right amount of chic nerdy-cool do, in fact, mix. Jenna has, so far, represented a perfect blend of business savvy and nerdy prep chic. This appeal coincided with the tech optimism of the 2010s and the girl boss era of the mid-2010s.
Though Jenna was catapulted from her extensive work at J. Crew, her reign came to an end in 2017. A year where many shakeups in the corporate world happened. Though Jenna left the company on mostly favorable terms, she did not disappear fully from the spotlight. Jenna went on to start a small makeup and eyelash business that focused on those who did not have eyebrows—born out of her ordeal of not having eyelashes. Though the company occupies an interesting niche, it has not been as successful as one might hope. It is found in some retail stores, but the brand has not really hit it’s stride or peak. This (and a wide-open schedule) has led Jenna to pivot in some interesting directions.
Once the pandemic hit, Jenna decided to pivot in some interesting directions, namely on the small silver screen. In 2021, Lyons took a small leap into the world of reality television with a project-runway-style reality competition show called ‘Stylish with Jenna Lyons’ on HBO Max. This show can be categorized as quirky, delightful, and a decent background watch. The show follows Jenna as she guides a bunch of young aspirational designers through different design challenges ranging from interior design, fashion design, toy design, architectural design, and more. It’s a feel-good show that showcases Jenna’s strengths as a mentor and a fashion connoisseur as she develops unique relationships with each contestant and offers practical career advice. Sadly, the show did not get a second season (much to my chagrin) and was canned after one paltry season of eight episodes. This cancellation left space for Jenna to work on another project. Another show. Another move. And that could’ve been anything. And that’s when the Real Housewives of New York came calling.
Getting a gig on HBO’s ‘Stylish with Jenna Lyons’ is not the first time we have seen Jenna Lyons on television. She made a guest appearance on the dynamic hit millennial show Girls, playing a version of herself as an editor who criticized and dismissed Hannah Horavth. Jenna showed her face in about three episodes, and the role felt natural on screen. However, both ‘Stylish’ and ‘Girls’ are different ballgames than The Real Housewives franchise.
The Real Housewives franchise has been trying to rebrand itself for a while now. The show is mostly popular with women who are in their forties and fifties, though women (and men) of all ages sit down and watch The Housewives gaggle. Still, the franchise is always trying to figure out ways to rebrand and expand. There is an interesting dynamic at play with the franchise. The franchise's most loyal fan base will follow it no matter where it goes—so much so that there is now an annual Bravo convention where people can gather and meet other fans in person while also meeting their favorite reality TV show celebrities in person. The convention has thousands of attendees, and the number keeps growing each and every year. The convention shows the power of the franchise and the infinite growth that it does in fact have. But despite all that, viewership has dropped.
The drama blends into the everyday life scenes, and the drama has its own ecosystem, complete with language, memes, and the fast-paced life on the internet. Fans of the franchise often share direct quotes on social media.
One thing that is interesting about the franchise as a whole is that no two cities that are featured on the show are the same. Each city has it’s own cast of eclectic characters that truly feel like a representation of people that you could potentially find if you lived in the wealthy echelons, or at least a gated suburban community in that specific city. The Real Housewives of Atlanta tends to feature women of color who are not only rich but oftentimes run their own businesses. The Real Housewives of Miami features women who have deep ties to their Latin roots and their community. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City leans heavily into the pros-and-cons of Mormon culture. And the women featured tend not to be housewives in the traditional sense. Many have their own ventures going on, regardless of whether they are married, divorced, have kids, or just dating. The point of the show is not really to give you a day-to-day look at a stay-at-home woman or a ‘housewife"—we have TikTok for that. But it is to sell a lifestyle. Many of the women who are on the show live a lavish lifestyle—one that most Americans and people in general could only dream to partake in.
And the lavish lifestyle is really the selling point. Seeing women shop, gossip, and live life—even outlandishly—is the point. People honestly love to watch aspirational (and unattainable) content. They like to see larger-than-life personalities getting together and doing what the rich and famous do—stir the pot, drink, and be merry. But what makes people stay isn’t the access to seeing people live a rich lifestyle or the fact that the franchise offers unfiltered and (once-upon-a-time: unprecedented) access to celebrities. What makes people stay is the petty drama and the incessant cat-fights that seem never-ending. It’s seeing rich people be human and be sh*tty to each other and themselves.
And to be frank, the drama of the Real Housewives franchise is in a league of its own. The crying faces, the wine throwing, the hair-pulling, the dragging of one another, the subtle digs and shady behavior—the husbands looking the other way while committing their own series of offense after offense. It’s all high-level entertainment. The drama blends into the everyday life scenes, and the drama has its own ecosystem, complete with a unique language, some memes, and the fast-paced speed of the internet. Fans of the franchise often share ‘direct quotes’ from the show on social media. Fans have their own jokes. They have their own mantras. They have their own people that they identify with. People share meme after meme from the franchise to talk, joke, and discuss with their friends and other like-minded people. The life outside of the show fuels the culture inside the show. And the drama of The Real Housewives does not stop at petty cat-fights. No. The show has been able to catch shocking moments from house arrests, divorces in real time, cheating in real time, couple swapping, and more. These moments make the franchise. These moments keep the show going on and on and on.
In some ways, The Real Housewives of New York feels a bit above it all. In the franchise world, New York does not always have the high-stakes drama of Salt Lake City, Potomac, Atlanta, or Dallas, to name a few. The Real Housewives of New York feels more like a background show. It seems more curated and polished. It focuses more on the mundanity of life than the cat-fight of the week. However, although, other franchise cities take up more of the conversation, New York has given us many iconic one-liners and stars, such as Bethany Frankel herself. But that does not seem like enough to save this particular city from this particular franchise.
There is a lack of clarity about what we want out of The Real Housewives of New York. Do we want them to be constantly fighting and dirty? Do we want them to only talk about business? Or do we secretly want them to show the softer exterior of a New York woman? Historically, the women in this particular city always seemed like they weren’t invested in the nitty-gritty of creating and keeping the drama. Yes, there were outbursts, and yes, there were dramatic moments, but it never seemed like they wanted to go there in the same way other franchise cities would. It is also interesting because most of the cast historically never really needed the show, as the women tended to actually have robust jobs or careers outside of the show. Historically, the women who appeared on the show didn’t really need the show in the same manner as the women in the other cities. People did tune in to watch for Bethany, Ramona, Luann, and other original cast-mates. But the homogeny of the show—from the type of problems to how the cast looked—seems to make the scenes blend together. Of course, some viewers like that. But at the end of the day, towards the latter seasons, it seemed like the show simply ran its course. But that really can’t happen when you are on a network like Bravo. People come for the drama. People stay for the drama. And without the drama, they leave.
Do we want them to be constantly fighting and dirty? Do we want them to only talk about business? Or do we secretly want them to show the softer exterior of a New York woman?
In 2022, producers took note of the lack of interest in The Real Housewives of New York and revived and rebooted the show for a new season. Season 14 featured a whole new set of cast-mates—mostly younger women in the heyday of their careers that had many things going for them. The surprise for fans and non-fans alike was that Jenna Lyons, the fashion guru, was also going to be part of the new rebooted season.
The announcement was met with shock and befuddlement for many who spend too much time online. From a business perspective, it makes sense why a producer would want to cast her. Millennials still know her (and still like her) even after the years that have passed since she left J. Crew. People still enjoy her fashion sense and know her by name. She is someone who is a semi-permanent fixture in pop culture jokes. And a person someone would look forward to seeing. If the overall goal is to get eyeballs, Jenna would get eyeballs on the new season for sure. Plus, there is just the inherent juxtaposition of it all, which many find intriguing. How would someone like Jenna fit in not only with the cast of New York but with the brand of the franchise as a whole? She is not someone who seems interested in petty cat-fights or gossiping for the sake of gossiping. How does that work? Does it really matter?
Because The Real Housewives in New York underwent a total reboot, there are a ton of new characters to get to know. The new cast of women is in their thirties or early forties. Most, if not all, of them are in some stage of parenting. Most, if not all of them have their own form of business- whether that is in content creation, blogging, real estate, fashion, design, etc. Most, if not all of them, aside from Jenna, aren't really known in the mainstream media and celebrity world. Meaning that if you saw them on the street, you wouldn’t recognize them and that they would blend in with the crowd. However, they also seem like professional women who are very well known in their professional circles and niche communities. Jenna, by contrast, is very well-known both in her personal niche community and to the general public at large. In some ways, or at least at first glance, The Real Housewives franchise benefits more from having Jenna Lyons presence on the show than she does from being on the show. But in some ways, it is also a mutual exchange. They both get to reach new audiences and new heights, and they cross-promote as people tune in to watch what Jenna is doing on the show. She does not need the show, but she does well with it. She knows the language of the show, and she knows where people like her cast-mates and fans want to be and where the ‘cool ones’ hang out. She has both financial and cultural currency to fit in or to stand out.
Some might say that part of the fun is seeing Jenna interact with a cast that is different from her- but also kind of the same. No one really seems to be the type to engage in too much petty cat-fighting. And the drama is really subdued compared to previous seasons in New York and in the other franchise cities. It’s a bit boring. It is also kind of refreshing. Jenna gets to be at least some version of her more authentic self, at least with this group. She gets to be quirky, introverted, silly, and fun, but still brings a subtle form of drama. So she can maintain her sense of self while dealing with the new circle, and because the women are also very much career-driven, no-nonsense type people and people that she probably recognizes and has had to deal with. It probably feels normal to her. When you pull back the layers, really we are just watching a group of women try to survive and thrive in multiple industries living in New York.
Still, after the initial shock wears off from seeing someone like Jenna Lyons (smart, nerdy, cool, and sophisticated) on a show franchise like The Real Housewives (trashy, fun, petty, and kooky), we are kind of left wondering what’s next. This current iteration of New York might be a little too relatable. It might be too on the nose about real life; it struggles with balancing normalcy and actually bringing out the fun, crazy moments we expect from the franchise. Juggling the demands of making strides in your career while also being a mother and wife to a growing household is nice but sometimes the drama doesn’t feel salacious enough. It may not be enough to keep viewers captivated and coming back (outside the core viewers) in the same manner as in Salt Lake City—a fan favorite—or in the same manner as in New Jersey or Atlanta (though Atlanta has been suffering from its own drop in viewership). And perhaps that’s just what we need. Maybe we don’t need drama on each and every one of these shows. Maybe the fatigue and the internet sprawl of having city after city of drama after drama can lead to us searching for another form of escapism. Maybe we want to escape into relatability or normalcy. Maybe The Real Housewives of New York can give us that.
The other big question to ask now that the season has been finished for a bit is: Did the gamble pay off? Well, it sure looks like it did. New York was green-lit for season fifteen, and each and every one of the cast-mates agreed to come back for the fifteenth season, including Jenna. They also all had positive things to say about being on the show, including some cast- mates calling it a sisterhood, which is not a typical word used for the franchise. Though it might be a sign of the times as well. We may say we want to see drama on our screen, but perhaps we are all feeling fatigued from watching cat-fight after cat-fight and want to see something more real or let the natural drama of life play out. There have been a ton of real and earnest moments and conversations that played out, which can be refreshing to see. It is also nice to see Jenna find sisterhood or friendship, if you will, with a group of people who do seem to want the best for each other, or at least for the time being.
And for Jenna? This is truly her second act. And, truly, she’s kind-of a hit. Kind-of an icon in her own right within the show and the stratosphere of the beloved franchise. It also gives us all a lesson—maybe we should all try the zany thing that we are not initially comfortable with. Maybe we should, in fact, do it for the story. Perhaps in the future, Jenna will parlay her experience on The Housewives into becoming a recurring guest judge on a show similar to Project Runway or ‘Stylish with Jenna’. Or maybe she’ll be a long-term cast-mate. But for now, at least, let us enjoy her gossiping and having fun with her co-workers-turned-work-besties-turned-actual-friends.