It was an impossible feat for Ariana Madix to break free of Vanderpump Rules’ gravitational pull and ascend to the Love Island villa in 2024. Looking back now, how lucky we were to witness an achievement so Herculean that it has proven completely irreplicable by just about everyone Madix has ever shared a network schedule with.
In fact, let me read exactly what I wrote at the time, witnessing her megawatt talent completely transform the villa: ”What makes Madix’s run noteworthy already is that she didn’t need the show — the show needed her. She has, undeniably, the star power to drag a flagship franchise behind her. In an age of ubiquity for the format, it’s spectacular to witness.” At least I can still say I’m always right, and everyone should listen to me more.
Love Island USA is back for season 7, with fireworks exploding over Fiji. A dramatic public vote and subsequent recoupling has shaken the foundation of the villa, and in walks Ariana Madix, sheathed in Laquan Smith with a 60-inch ponytail skimming the top of her ass. Nobody has ever looked hotter, not for a single moment in the history of reality television.
It’s just one of many moments created in tandem with her all-star glam team, like stylist Emily Men, hairstylist Carl Bembridge and makeup artist Krystal Dawn. Each piece of this works together for maximum effect. If even one single strand was out of place in that ponytail, if her makeup wasn’t this buttery smooth, if this Laquan Smith didn’t hug her just so, the entire thing would have swallowed her whole. Describing her team as having incredible technical skill doesn’t even begin to explain what’s happened here; what I’m looking at could have only sprung into existence through sheer magic.
Longtime viewers of the Love Island format will balk at the suggestion that art is present in the villa, or even high level fashions. This is not a show that engenders critical thought outside the kind peddled by fake love language “experts” on TikTok or Vulture recap writers. But if artistry is not in the room with us right now, what else do we collectively call this PatBO crochet number with hair pulled straight off Amanda Seyfried’s scalp during the filming of Mamma Mia?
I’m most interested in the storytelling through fashion that defies the expectations of the format. More specifically, it’s styling that rejects the idea that Love Island is simply a garbage receptacle for fast fashion and cheap clothing. As host, she’s elevating the contestants, and reputation of the franchise, by association. This is not to diminish the work of others who’ve come before her. To recycle my earlier gravity metaphor, she’s become a planetary force dragging everyone else into the gravity well around her. There’s a visible effect she has on contestants that is positively electric to watch — their reactions supercharged by the outfits she keeps showing up in.
Last season, she set the bar with her entrance look — a spectacular wet effect Di Petsa moment — which I dubbed the premiere reality television moment of the year. I was keen to see how she’d come back for season 7’s big moment, and found myself surprised again by the custom Taylor Jean Cox mesh two-piece she sauntered in with.
According to her stylist Emily Men, it featured over 3000 beads and crystals from Mood Fabrics. Each was used to incredible effect here — the nude effect amplified by the subtle pop of pink in her eyeshadow and her matching champagne nails.
The look that will go down in the books for this season, however, is her look from the dominatrix party. It’s the perfect example of how flawless this styling is, considering her dress is $114 on Oh La La Cheri, and her shoes are from Steve Madden. Under any other circumstance, this would be a cheap costume someone wears to a kitschy bachelorette function or Halloween party. But this wig, courtesy of Carl Bembridge, completely alters the vibe. The dramatic draping of the shawl helps also, as does the just-too-much accessorizing and pink lip and nude eyeshadow combo. There’s a version of this glam that leans into a red lipstick that’s the significantly worse version, albeit the version most other teams would have went with.
For years, I have watched this show (and written about it) to mock the extreme fringes of the PrettyLittleThing sale section. From underwire bikinis to keyhole cutouts and cork wedges, the villa has seen the very worst our shambling modern fashion industry has to offer. Thankfully, Madix and company have discovered that art and reality television can exist together under the same stars. All it takes, from what I’ve seen, is an even brighter, supermassive star with 15 pounds of hair extensions and Laquan Smith runway pulls to bring them both into orbit together.
But it diminishes Madix’s own talent to chalk up her success on the show to mere clothing and magic tricks. Beyond reinventing the outward style of the villa, she’s also changed the hosting for the better too. Previous hosts have been television veterans, certainly, but there’s a compassion she brings to her onscreen performance that’s clearly engendered by her own relationship to the format. Remember, she came onto this job in the shadow of the defining reality television scandal of the 21st century. It was a moment in her life, let alone for the network, that felt indescribably bleak and deeply misogynistic, even by the standards of Vanderpump Rules, already noxious with the stench of men like Jax Taylor and Randall Emmett.
Madix, more than most other women who’ve gone through the gauntlet of reality television fame, understands what it’s like to have your entire life turned upside down under the scrutiny of these cameras. While playfully icy at times to befit her styling, there’s a warmth under the surface of her persona that radiates throughout the villa. Whether it’s shooting compassionate comments at women mid-breakdown or sniping at men caught in the act of bad behavior, she treads the line between statuesque hostess and the friend these islanders desperately need – in a stiletto, no less.
Photos via Getty Images
