It can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to dissect every single morsel coming out of the Villa on season seven of Love Island USA, airing on Peacock right now. (I personally dedicate more than I’d like to admit to this.) There’s also not much that the growing (and growingly divided) audience universally agrees on — except the fact that Ariana Madix looks amazing, whether it’s in a molten bronze maxi with a Rapunzel-worthy braid, in a hot pink LaQuan Smith cut-out dress, or in a red latex mini as her newly-discovered brunette alter ego.
The reality TV star and Love Island superfan has leveled up her fashion for her sophomore season as host. Her secret weapon? Content creator and stylist Emily Men, whom Madix has been working with since season 10 of Vanderpump Rules. (Fun fact: They connected through fellow Bravo star Lindsay Hubbard.) Having already collaborated on Love Island looks last summer, they didn’t feel the pressure to one-up themselves fashion-wise, even with all the attention the show’s gotten since season six. “That being said,” Madix says, “I definitely feel like we’ve still somehow managed to [bring]it.”
Men describes herself as “very go-with-the-flow,” and she wasn’t particularly concerned with people’s expectations. “Working from last season to this season, I didn’t change anything because my philosophy is: Whether it’s Love Island, a press thing, whatever, just pull what’s best out there,” she says. “Whenever I’m looking and sourcing, it’s always what looks the best. I’m not super strategic with it.”
The main difference between seasons six and seven, Men adds, is that she and Madix started sending each other ideas during the off-season, compiling a folder of inspiration that served as a starting point for the wardrobe. “We want to have an element of surprise, which I think we do execute, but it’s still Love Island,” she notes. “It’s still tropical, so the obvious things come to mind.”
“I was saving a lot of crochet, a lot of very mermaid looks,” Madix says, “some muted dusty pinks and blues.”
As a Love Island connoisseur, Madix is quite familiar with the sartorial language of the show, which influences how she dresses as the host. “It doesn’t have to always be bright colors, but it’s got to be something,” she says. “It can’t just be a nice dress. It always has an element — if it’s a pink dress, it’s a pink dress with my whole stomach cut out and my whole back out; if it’s going to be a darker color, it’s going to look like I just came from outer space…. Everything is a look.”
If she were to sum up her Love Island wardrobe, it would come down to: “Strong looks, bright colors, and sexy. Always sexy. I come to Fiji with pounds of boob inserts.”
While the two are very in tune on the types of looks they want, the show’s production schedule presents logistical challenges. For one, the clothes need to be in Fiji for the duration of filming, from the beginning of June through mid-July. “It can be a bit of a struggle to narrow down what’s available [for that long]and what [we can]get our hands on,” Madix says. “You think, ‘Oh yeah, host of Love Island, all these cool outfits, everyone’s just giving things’ — it’s not as easy. So many of those fashion houses are like, ‘Oh, it’s a reality show? No.’”
“I come to Fiji with pounds of boob inserts.”
Ariana Madix
Two months is a long time to cede a sample, but this is a production that has continuously broken viewership records, with Peacock reporting that 39% of those tuning in are new to the show — especially after season six, which was so successful and beloved, its cast members are getting a spin-off. You can’t log onto any social media platform “every day but hump day” without seeing posts about what the current Islanders are up to (and the audience’s assessment of the drama unfolding onscreen).
Madix’s wardrobe ends up being a mix of pieces Men borrows from showrooms, is gifted, thrifts, or finds online. “The colorful rainbow disc one — that one was from a small business that I found on Etsy,” she says.
They’ll have a fitting about a week or two before Madix heads out to Fiji. Men will then tailor everything to Madix’s measurements and do a second fitting to make sure everything’s good. “Once we decide that these are the looks, I’ll start to accessorize — shoes, jewelry,” Men continues. “Then I send off a PDF of all the looks. Some things change, because sometimes I’m not able to try on rings and that kind of stuff, but I [map it out]as best as I can. It’ll even show ‘right hand, left hand, helix piercing, whatever side faces the camera more.’” She’s not in Fiji with Madix, so those in-real-time adjustments are at the hands of Emily Abbey and Karissa Loveday, the on-set wardrobe team that gets her ready for filming; though they’re all on a WhatsApp group together, where they’ll send pictures, chime in on changes, and communicate what’s happening in real time.
For her part, Madix will keep all her options on a rack, so she can remain flexible and make game-time decisions. “Let’s say there are 10 more times I’m going to be going in — ‘Okay, well, we don’t want two gold [looks]next to each other.’ We try to stagger everything,” she says. “Sometimes we think, ‘This might be good for [Love Island:] Aftersun. Oh, but we wanted to have a moment. Is this now going to be a game [look]? Is it a daytime thing?’ We’re changing in real time sometimes.”
She also thinks about why she’s going inside the Villa. “Night one, we go sparkly — something that feels sexy but also fun and celebratory,” Madix explains. “When I came in this season for America’s Vote, when Charlie got dumped, I was very much leaning into, ‘I know someone’s going home tonight, I’m coming in delivering America’s Vote, and it’s going to be intense.’ Then Casa Amor Recoupling, it was sexy, but also I wanted to feel kind of dangerous, because it’s one of those nights that can go many different directions, but usually is pretty intense. When I came in to introduce Casa Amor, it’s like, ‘This is a daytime look. I want it to be bright. I want it to be fun. I’m having fun with them. No one’s going home.’”
Another very real consideration for Madix: “Sometimes I’m in my luteal phase, so I don’t want to wear a certain outfit — I’m here long enough to be on two periods. That type of stuff affects [outfit decisions]as well.”
“To casually wear a ball gag as a necklace — chef’s kiss.”
Ariana Madix
This season, Madix and Men have been able to call upon friends, like L.A.-based designer and seamstress Taylor Cox, who made her custom beaded crystal mesh gown for night one. They’ve also had a lot of fun experimenting with new looks, like Madix’s “Leather and Lace” party ensemble. “I had two options for that night, one of which was a black lace bodysuit with a black leather corset, harnesses, and bunny ears. But then we tried on the red dress and the coat, and Emily found some amazing accessories online,” Madix says. “I thought, ‘Wow, to casually wear a ball gag as a necklace — chef’s kiss.’”
“I was just ordering random stuff,” Men admits. “It was funny because a lot of people didn’t catch it, but then a lot of people did. It was just something subtle.”
The duo also gives props to the hair and makeup team, Carl Cambridge and Krystal Dawn, the former being responsible for Madix’s brunette locks for the “Leather and Lace” party. “You need all the components,” Men says. “You need all the elements for it all to go together. So it’s amazing that we’re able to form this great team.”
Madix and Men still have a few tricks up their sleeves for what remains of the season. “There are a couple of things that are pretty epic that I hope we have a moment for,” Madix teases, adding that there’s a hard-shell top moment she’s excited to wear.
“Love Island is fun because there are so many looks in one show,” Men notes. “[There are] so many different moods and so many different types of styles. We love to mix and match. Some people take fashion too seriously, but, at the end of the day, it’s fun, and you should be able to wear all the things you want to wear.”
“Now,” Madix says, “we got to think about, ‘Well, where do we go from here?’”
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