Just B with Bethenny FrankelPART ONE of the most magical experience I've ever had (short of childbirth): walking in Paris Fashion Week
Wow, have I been through an experience. So I think it's important to mention that I only sweat the small stuff. And what I know to be true, and what everyone around me realizes, is that I place equal importance on things that would seem very different in importance to other things proportionally. And what I mean is like what dish we're ordering at a restaurant, to what caption I put on a post, to what kind of cookie place we go to first to try, to what drugstore lip gloss I put on is equally as important to me as speaking in front of five thousand people or going on the Today Show or a date, or walking a runway in front of millions of people. Literally, like it's not a joke, Like I have a very strange way of prioritizing things. Everything matters, Like everything matters equally very If you do it, it matters. It doesn't matter how small or how big it is. If you're making it in the kitchen, you do you make it good or you don't make it at all, like and you throw it out if it's gross, Like you don't just settle. I don't settle in any way. I don't settle in. I won't settle in relationships or work or I'd rather just not do it. So I am a very big like do it or don't type of person. And I'm really not a gray. I'm a black or a white. So that's hard sometimes because I'm obsessed with everything, but I lose the plot because I focus on the smaller things sometimes and don't realize the big things. Like I've been in restaurants and there could be a seven forty seven that could could crash in through the ceiling and I wouldn't notice it, but I would notice like some smudge on the table.
You know. I'm very myopic in that way.
And also I kind of when people ask me if I have the Emperor has no close thing, I think I kind of do. I've always said no, but I think I might because I maybe ironically don't think I'm worthy, Like I know that I'm worthy, but I can never believe that I'm worthy.
I know it.
I'm very confident, I'm not insecure, I'm not vain, but I can never really believe that I'm worthy. Like knowing it is different than believing it than feeling it in your body. So, for example, when I got the MTV like Lifetime Achievement Award. Someone had to let me know that it really wasn't supposed to be for me. It was supposed to be for somebody else. But they couldn't though, And I was like, who cares, I'm there. I don't give a shit. But then we get there and it's like a different MTV Awards, Like it's not the one that like j Lo's at. It's like this other like reality one that like snooky and like Kristin Cavalari's at, which I was grateful and thrilled to be there. I'm just saying, like, it's always like you're always a hair short, you know, I'm always like it's always like you're there, but like not really Like listen, I was on the cover of Forbes magazine and I was on the list, and I was one hundredth on the list, like out of one hundred, So like, I don't care I made it in, and I'm that person that like says, like, I don't care how we got in.
We're inlets.
It's what we do when we get there. I don't care that I got paid seven and two hundred fifty dollars to be on the Housewives. I got in there and I made a meal out of it, Like that's how I roll. And I never know what anything actually means or is, Like I don't. Something can come in from my publicist that she's like, you should definitely do this, and then I'm like, why am I doing this? And this sucks and we're not gonna do it, and then we get there and I'm like, holy shit, and she's like, I mean I told you. And also sometimes she tells me to do things that then our shit.
I mean, you can't. You can't.
Can't hit a home run every time. But like I never know what something is until I arrive, Like when you describe it to me, this is an appearance we're doing that. I kind of get it. I get the sense of it. Is it on brand? Is it like not compromising myself? But I forget I said it and forget it, and then the day of it's always the same thing. Someone comes to me, can we do want the questions in advance? And I always say no, And then I just want to do everything.
Let's do real.
I always say, let's do real, like I just want it to be the real moment that's happening. I like thrive on authenticity and just like the real moment, because that's where the beauty and the magic happens. That's where the happy accidents happen. When you're overproduced, which I discussed on a post about Blake Lively and Jennifer Lopez, you know, and you're overproduced in an archaic model of trying to make everything perfect and be perfect and show everybody that you're perfect, you miss a lot of the magic. So I'm about the magic. Sometimes with the magic, there's not Sometimes all the times, there's some crazy thing that happens.
I don't know why. I don't know if it's me.
I don't know if I'm Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett or like why things Maybe it's because I get too excited.
I don't know what.
Things happen me all the time that are like insane. There's always something and I and even when I try so hard for it not to be something, something has to happen as little as like I'm in a feather dress in Paris, like locked in a bathroom, and like my assistant's like now trying to be a mechanic. Like it's just always something. So when Danielle, who works with me, calls me and says, you're sitting down and I say, no, I'm not, but what and she says, you're walking in Paris at the Lorel fashion show. So like that doesn't I don't understand what that. I don't even understand what that sentence means. I heard like Paris Fashion Week, she said, and I'm like, that sounds really big, but like for me, my mind will always go to like there are other people walking in big shows, but like whatever I'm invited to is probably like the thing the day before, you know what I mean, like just not the real thing. But I was excited. I'm like, oh my god, I'm going to Paris. But I still was like I don't believe it, Like I don't know what it means.
It's a constant.
It's like not it's too abstract. So everyone's getting excited and I'm getting excited, but I don't really even know what I'm excited about. And Loreal is a big, major company. I didn't realize they were the biggest in the world. I now know that they're the biggest beauty brand in the world, but like, I still don't get it. So so we had like let's call it like six weeks or a month ago, and I'm telling I'm not allowed to say anything, but I'm telling my friends and anybody who will like be impressed by the fact that I'm going to Paris Fashion Week, like just like fronting. But I really didn't want to sell out and act like I belong, Like, oh, I have to go to Version Week, you know, like I was super excited and decided that I would. They were sending me with just with my with one person who was going to be Britain. But I realized I needed someone for work and I don't usually like a lot of people around, Like I'm not like a group person. I get anxiety. But like I knew I had to bring one person. Then I was like, I should also bring my other social person, and kind of it became like this is little Miss Sunshine or the Muppets go to Hot Wherever Manhattan, but Muppets take Manhattan like little Miss Sunshine. If you didn't see the movie, it's a girl named Olive who's like not the typical pageant girl by you know, with the She's got the big thick glasses and her family is.
Completely like flawed.
Everybody's sortifiable and something's wrong and they're a disaster, like a disaster, and I'm like, now three of us are going. Now we're all going, So like it was an expense for me, Like it was like we're getting everyone playing tickets and hotel rooms and I'm like, but we're got like one for all awful one. Everyone's coming, We're getting in the van, and Olive is going to go into some version of a fashion show, right, So like one by one, I was just asking people. They were freaking out, and only one person had ever been to Paris before. One person had never left the country before, and so like it really was like people were, you know, four weeks planning, you know, eating healthy, like trying to figure out outfits. Like everybody was super excited and we didn't really know anything and no one was telling us anything, so we didn't understand what's gonna happen. And then like someone said, you could do a photo shoot with Brinn when you're there, which sounded like an obligation because I didn't understand it. But I was like, yes, we're coming from a place of yes. So there were six of us, which is insane, Like who am I Like, now I'm a gangster rapper? I just like bring like six people into like a posse and fly everybody to Europe. Like okay, so we all my team of four all like younger, you know, they're flying together, which Brenn and I had some fomo we weren't flying with them, but we landed at the exact same time, and like it was gonna be a vacation for Brinn and I, but like we would do the work obligations, like not obligations, but like the show and the other things around it, like there was an optional dinner with the Loreal team, an optional thing, and I'm usually the like not optional dinner person, Like I'm doing my own thing and then I'm going.
To the real thing.
But like we land and I'm feeling fomo missing my team. It really is like a little miss Sunshine. So I'm like to Brinn, like let's go to lunch because somebody she likes to be with me alone. She's like, no, let's go to lunch with everyone. So we were gonna go to lunch with everyone, to just a restaurant, just like a French restaurant, and then we passed this place called like Maison de la Trouf, which is like the House of Truffles. I'm like, oh my god, how can I not take them all to Truffles, Like, let's fucking lean in, double down, triple down, and forget. I don't remember why we're there. I forget that we're there for a fashion job. I'm just in the moment of like we're a little miss Sunshine and we're And then next to that was like caviar Caspa, the place that I had that like two million dollar baked potato filled with caviar, like loaded with caviar. When are these people ever gonna have caviar? Now, this is what's going on with the Land of the Misfit Toys. Behind the scenes, Jason, the makeup artist they all tell me, did not sleep one second. Was laughing out loud at whatever he was watching on the plane and drank six Vodkas, like en route to a work trip. And when the person who was serving him asked him what he wanted, he kept saying double vodkas each time of the six and they were like, well, and he's very tall, and they were like, well, they like it's like having two in the air. He's like, well, I'm twice the size, so loaded up, so he's drinking multiple vodkas.
Apparently.
My assistant Mia has a very unique way of sleeping on an airplane where she like faces and hugs the seat to sleep.
None of us understand that.
And also she lets everybody know that she's like she's has never had Merleau, so she has Merlau for the first time on the plane, and also is excited to come to Paris to taste Barata, not realizing that Barat is from Italy.
But they're going with.
It, like everybody was just and Emily, my social girl, looked at Danielle like she was a crazy person for bringing a normal sized suitcase because of course on brand. Emily, who's that girl who wears like leggings and like a half top to an airport, which is serial killer behavior. And she's like has tattoos and she's like gorgeous, but like she's like that tough, bad like production bitch with all the stuff, with all the gear she has carry on luggage, which to me is serial killer going to Paris. So she's looking at Danielle like what the fuck are you doing? And so their fire like it's just every they're all laughing, which makes me so happy. Because I'm that friend that like wants my friends to be friends with each other. I don't need to be there. I in fact, I don't want to be there, Like I just die that they're all laughing and becoming friends with each other and enjoying each other, you know, like my housekeeper still has relationships with my former assistant, and like I just like everybody to be like have a family dysfunctional. I crave and attract crazy dysfunctional people that are like misfits that fit together, that are little nuts that like value humor first. So they're all having their own experience. So we go. We have touched the ground, we've bathed and now and also Danielle, who's who is a president of my company, who she and I really have She myself and Emily have really built this business together like they have been my like non traditional team.
I don't have an agent. I don't do anything normally.
I just Danielle was working in social and I don't even think that that was like her best skill set, to be perfectly honest, She's like a young girl that used to work in like publishing whatever, and I'm like, no, I think you should come over here, and we should work on like deals together and like we created this position for her and in a world that neither of us understand what we were doing, and we just have made this happen on our own. Like anything is possible. You could do anything. You could have any job. You could be a publish she could be a producer, you could be a stylist. You could be anything you want. It's not that hard. You can't be a doctor or a surgeon. I don't advise that without a degree. So Danielle goes to bed every night at nine o'clock. She's a toddler, and it's like annoying. So Emily is on a West coast, so I talked to her late at night and Danielle, they're on like different shifts of dealing with me, because I roll from six am to eleven pm. So I need people on different shifts to deal with my ideas. So Danielle all of a sudden has a new personality in Paris. Now she like drinks wine. Now she's up late at night. Now she's ready to go off the plane, like she has a new French personality. So all of us get in the car and we go and we have an Amus boush. We have a giant baked potato with caviar and wine and like this experience and they're all like, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened in my whole life. We haven't even done anything yet, they can't believe their lives. Then we go next door and we have like a multiple course truffle tasting, like just decadence at its finest, and are off to races and we are the little Miss Sunshine team that like does everything like meaning Loreeale is like, do you want to go on the their first night and we're all like yup. We're in the dinner like and we meet the other influencers and Kensington is a young influencer, becomes my five 't eleven supermodel like Glamazon child, and my team takes over a lot of space and they're just like eating every morsel and drinking every drink and like dancing every dance and they're just like bending over Paris and fucking it like they're not missing one crumb, and everyone's just attracted to them and us because it's like we don't even know why we're that. We forgot we're doing a show. We're just like living our best lives in the moment.
So we go.
I go to the fitting with Danielle, which is a Larel fitting, and I get there and I don't realize that this woman, Delphine, who they introduced me to, is like the global head of everything. She's like the HBI C, they head bitch in charge of Lorel. But I'm just saying.
Hello to everybody, meeting everybody. I'm excited.
I have no idea, and they're like, oh my god. And she comes up to me and she's like, oh my god, you sold the shit out. I mean, she shouldn't say it that way, but she's like, you sold midnight cream and like I'm like, she's like you made that product and I'm like, I was in pajamas dirty and she's.
Like, you know, you're real.
And I don't realize till later that she's like the HBI C and she's planning the entire fashion show that I also don't realize what it's like. And so we go into this fitting and now it starts to come into fruition, like what I'm walking into because this is like multiple rooms that one time I think I was in like a Harper's No that was just a Harper's Bizarre photo shoot. I've never been into one of those like Vogue or something fashion rooms. When I tell you I've been into rooms, it was. It was two giant rooms of like I don't know, maybe like a thousand to fifteen maybe to fifteen hundred elaborate dresses when I tell you, not like like something. Everything was something that like Rihanna would wear to the maccallap, like giant feathers and sequins and like cra like over the top, like you're looking like the Statue of Liberty. You're just like and all different colors. And I was like, what the the hell is going on? I pictured I was going to go into some dressing room with some person and they were gonna give me three things they picked out for me.
I try what not?
This was like you walk through here and you pick whatever you want, like and I'm not. I didn't even go I just saw this little cute dress that was hanging in it looked like my personality. Because also I didn't want to go there and act like I belong. Oh. I forgot to tell you that me and the land and Misfit toys at my house weeks before in like fifteen to twenty minutes we sat on my bed. And I have a crazy, weird, like beautiful mind way of dressing. I don't wear something in my closet until it's absolutely perfect for the event. Like I don't rush an outfit to make it work for the event. I wait, I could wait five years something sitting in there staring at me like like toy story, like that toy that wants to be played with. Then I leave it there crying until five years in I'm like, that's what I'm wearing to the US Open, Like that little gene Oscarla went a flirty little bow dress that like won't work anywhere else, like you look like a toddler, and it it always works. So and I have like a section for like some when I go into like some Milan fashion week, like if that ever happens because I'm now a supermodel, like there's oh, there's a section for that. But like those things I bought on ninety percent off sale, they have tags on them, they're waiting for their moment. I'll buy like a gown that was fifteen thousand dollars that I found for one thousand dollars and it looks like you're going to win an Academy award and it's sitting in the closet like you're a weirdo, Like why would you buy that? Because there'll be a day. So everyone sat on my bed and I'm like, Okay, here are my ideas. And we styled fashion week and I was like, I'm doing it and I'm doing it myself. I don't borrow clothes, I don't use a stylist. It feels inauthentic to me. I'm doing it myself. And like we styled it forever for lunches, like to wear ball gowns, like we just leaned into the carry Bradshaw moment. I was like, I'm going I'm not gonna be my normal self whom we're in like sweatpants, you know, or just like jeans and like a blazer or like I wanted do this right. So we did that. So now I go to the fashion shoot. They told me I'm the fastest one that's ever done it.
I walked in.
They had a couple of things they showed me. They didn't seem like my personality. I didn't want to act like nothing's worse than someone shows up at like a movie premiere and were's like something where they act like they're getting the award or like they were in the movie.
You got to like know your place in society.
I am like the one hundredth person on the Forbes list at this Lorel show, like I heard, there's fifty people, twenty eight countries, a lot of actual supermodels. Like know your freaking place. Sit in the back. Just try to stick the landing and get something that makes some sense. So I picked this cute, adorable dress that looks like me. It's a tulip flower, it's a Romanian designer, and but but I'm fifty three. So I'm like, I want to rock the body that rocks the party. I want to be like, I'm not gonna cover myself. I'm gonna be like hi, like dance with the legs that wrung you, Like, I'm gonna show my body like but I'm also not gonna try to overstep. So I picked an outfit that was comfortable and quintessentially me. I looked at it, I put it on, it fit like it had been sewn onto me, and we walked the fuck out to get on with the rest of what we were doing, which is like enjoying every morsel of wine. So then we go out like on a brand dinner with Lorel and we have a great time and like, you know, my team is just like so fun and we just like keep going. And then the next day it's like, oh, Brenn and I have a fashion shoot that we're doing, like in front of the Eiffel Tower, which initially felt like work, and then all of a sudden we meet this amazing photographer, Nicholas Gerard Den, and he shoots Shakira and the Kardashians and Lauren Sanchez and Eva Longoria and his wife is a famous psychic, and like he's our new best friend, and he takes us to like these little alleys where like you have the best view of the Eiffel Tower, but not like in the obvious tourist place, so you feel like you're like in the bowels of Paris, but like next to the Eiffel Tower, and we're in these gorgeous outfits, and like everyone came because like the whole Muppet crew doesn't need to come, little on a Sunshine van doesn't need to come, but it's like one for all. Everyone came for this and they were all so happy because they got like the views and the pictures and it was just like magic gull. Every second was the best second of our lives. And then two years ago Brennan and I went and she wanted to get one of those locks and put it on the bridge, like those love locks. If you ever do this, get get a brightly colored one, bring it from home, put some painted purple, put ryanstones on it. Do not just get the basic bitch tourist store lock like we got, because you may one day want to go back and find it, and it's not that easy. So we go to the lock bridge two years ago and the lock bridge is no room or they won't let you do it or something, and they cut them off, we heard. So we find like the scaffolding sort of side like ledge under the bridge where there are also thousands of locks. Like we're this wasn't our idea, Like for miles there are these locks and we can't find one spot, and we find this one little spot and we jam it. I remember, like it was yesterday. It was so hard to like move a other locks because some people are putting their locks on other people's locks, and we didn't want to do that. So we like want needed to be in like the initial spot. So we got the lock in, we put like Mama loves Peanut on it, and Brinn's like, Mom, I want to go back and find the lock. I don't know how to explain to you what this would be like doing like this is not this is this is psychotic. I'm like, Brin, I mean, I love you, I love your spirit. It's like putting a message in a bottle and expecting it to like wash up and you're gonna find it.
I mean, it's ridiculous.
But we took I remember taking a picture of the lock and being like, then if we ever come back, But it all ends up looking the same. You know, it's a long, endless bridge and it's everything looks the same. Every stairway down to this ledge looks the same. So somehow we find the area and we can see it in the picture, and this famous photographer comes with us, and we see this little hole in the stone that seemed like it was an identifiable spot in the bridge. I don't think it ended up actually not being and it was such a lesson in life. So Nickicholas and Brynn are digging into cobweb laden locks, like arguing with each other. It's here, it's not here, it's that, it's not that. Like we almost started to feel bad that the photographer was helping us for so long. It was like it ended up being sixteen minutes. But like that she wanted to almost like faking an orgasm, like she wanted to almost tell him like, oh, we're there, but like it would have been so like dissatisfying. So I then me, as they're playing checkers and I'm always playing chess, so I'm stepping back. I'm like, guys, brin, step away from the problem, keep going back to the picture, like retrace your steps, go step back. And then they find like where the locks like crossed with this like railing that was in front of it, and like then they were able to identify it and we find the lock. Too bad, we didn't keep the key. That was a rookie move. We find the lock, it says Mama Peanut, and we want to put something on it. So next time, so she takes off a bracelet that's definitely gonna fall off. But like we found the lock. It was magical that happened on the trip and everyone Mi I was there for that my assistant like that was insane. Okay, So we find the lock and then the next day is showtime. Now each night we're staying out late. We're going out like you just like sleep and look good, like I don't sleep at all. The night before the show, I get a last minute, amazing massage at this great place codage spot inside the Kimpton Hotel. If you're going to Paris, Kimpton is perfect. It's a boutique hotel. If you don't like transacting, you want something to feel Parisian. You want to be in a cute area. You want to like not it's still expensive, but it's not like being at the Ritz, where like the lobbies. Everything but your room is gonna be tiny. There are people like that. I'm not that person. I want my room to be good. I want to not see a lot of people. I want the food to be good. The breakfast was amazing, big fan. I would stay at the Kimpton every time. Rooms are as small. We had a sweet so was a little bigger but pretty balcony, gorgeous. It just I loved it. So I got a gorgeous massage.
They're shocking.
So I fell asleep the morning of the show, which I was thrilled about.
And then we go.
Over to the show and I'm wondering, I think I might have to be continued because this is the show itself is such a story what happened that I need to take a deep breath and do that in the next episode. And it's okay, because the trip was so sick that we forgot why we were there, Like it was so sick that now like we're there for the now, we'd like realize why we're there. And and oh, it's at le Berra, which is the opera. It's a massive landmark in the middle of Paris. And I realized as we got there that it's twenty eight countries.
As I told you fifty models.
They say they're twenty five hundred people going to watch, but it's not really twenty five hundred a it's going to be like televised and all over the world. But I didn't realize that there are like thousands of people that are gonna be on the street because people are like in their buildings and you in the windows, and like they're closing off streets. They're closing off streets in Paris, like for this show, like what I thought this was going to be like be in the meatpacking district version of Paris, like which looks amazing, like in just like fashion week and you're just walking down this long, chic runway, and I thought it was gonna be like I've been to.
Fashion Week in New York and it's like a little pretentious.
It's a little like everyone takes themselves very seriously and it's I have fashion Week this week, and everyone acts like they're curing cancer and going to fashion Week. And it's just it's not like it doesn't have a soul. It's not that alive. Like, yes, it's alive because they are beautiful people and it's gorgeous creations and you have to respect the art and I've it, but it's not like it just doesn't feel totally like.
Free.
It doesn't feel free and it doesn't feel alive. And I have been to everything. I have been to the Vanity Fair party, I have been to the Grammys, I have been to the Emmys. I've gone to every movie premiere I've I know, I know probably seventy five percent of mainstream celebrities, and that mainstream of like major celebrities, Like I've been in the world. Okay, So what I'm about to set you up for like is coming from that perspective, not a braggy perspective, but like I pretty much know everybody through like my whole life, just all the jobs working for Laura Michaels, working for Jerry Bruckheimer, partnering with Ellen, running into Sea, working with Mark Burnett, like you know, working with Martha Stewart, just like I just know a lot of people.
It just this is just what it's been. And I've been to a lot of things, and.
You know, Mark Cuban and Steve Cohener on speed dial, Like I just want you to know, like I've seen it, sporting events, super Bowl, famous photographer boyfriends, Like we've been there, We've done it. I'm about to set you up for the single greatest experience of my life, like you know, short of having a child and childbirth and things like that, but this is like this was I've never been more humble. I've never experienced something more monumental and also something that I had no idea what I was walking into, no idea for what was to come. I mean there's a concept that you're like, Okay, Kendall, Jenn or Eva Longoria. But sometimes like you hear that people are at something, like I was at the It Ends with Us premiere, but I was, like, I never interacted with Blake Lively. I was at the halle Berry premiere. I happened to have been in a beauty pageant with halle Berry when I was thirteen, but I didn't interact with halle Berry. Like, just because you're going to something and someone else is doesn't mean they're interacting with you. Anna Wintour was that It Ends with Us. I mean she breezed right by me, like I did not know, like what just because those people were gonna be at this thing and Viola Davis and I had no idea what I was entering into and how much of an honor it was going to be to be included in this experience. So I just wanted to give you the fore play because I'm usually I get to the main act kind of person sin but like I really was olive in the Little Miss Sunshine Van like it felt the same. And the one thing that I just do know in life is and that I've always told my daughter, you don't have to act like you belong. It's not necessarily that it's commit to the bit, like I am a commit to the bit person, and we all committed with our whole entire bodies to every dinner, every piece of caviar, every glass of wine, every experience, the fitting, the photo shoot, like we just went in and left no crumbs. We left it all on the field, and then we get to game day. The big cop
