Fashion, like reality television, is built on false pretenses. So it makes perfect sense that the producers of Bravo’s flagship Real Housewives property finally got hip to the notion of casting fashion influencers when rebooting their New York franchise. The key, of course, was to find women who sought validation, needed cash, and were willing to endure a very specific flavor of humiliation that comes with playing this very particular game. 

As it turns out, they were not hunting an endangered species. Jenna Lyons, for instance—the uber-talented, uber-famous former J.Crew designer—has said that she joined the cast in order to promote her false eyelash line, LoveSeen. (And though she has since answered the higher calling of private equity, she is still coming back for another round of Housewives.) Jessel Taank, the sweet publicist, hawked ŌUSHQ, a Middle Eastern fashion retailer. Sai De Silva, the fashion blogger, used to live in the same building as me—let’s just say that it was not a luxury high-rise—and may have had her own motives. The fashion people who declined the Real Housewives producers all tended to be actually rich or self-secure, and didn’t need the cable validation. I’m told that jewelry designer Jennifer Fisher, who sold a stake in her business to Centric Brands earlier this year, decided against it.