Mia Alario Needs Roberto Cavalli and Bravo Cameras, Now!

This is So Chic, Very Chic, PAPER’s examination of Bravo’s sprawling cohort of fashion obsessives. From haute couture to TJ Maxx, they’ve literally worn it all. We've just got two questions. Is it so chic? Is it very chic?

This week, we're talking to Mia Alaric, star of Bravo's Southern Hospitality. The wise-cracking ingenue chats about finding herself in the middle of the Summer House drama between West Wilson, Amanda Batula and Ciara Miller, her need for Bravo to pick up cameras on a new season of Southern Hospitality now, her love for Cavalli and Herve Leger and body oil. Oh, and did we mention her sister is a co-host on Nymphet Alumni?

Read all about it!

Did you ever feel like when the show started that you were one of those underdogs on the network, since especially so many of the shows had been around so long or had the Real Housewives attached to it?

Well, going into it, I wasn't a big Bravo fan, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. And then there was a lot of negative backlash from the show being announced because everyone's like, "Oh, you're trying to be Vanderpump Rules.You'll never be them." And I'm like, "What the fuck are we talking about right now? What are we doing?" So I personally was like, "Okay, this is going to be a one season and done kind of thing." And then we kept getting renewed and the editing got better. We had more budget. People started taking us really seriously and then it came into fruition to what it is now. I'm really happy to have been on it since season one. Obviously, I do not work at Republic anymore, so I'm still very grateful that I get the opportunity to film and be a cast member.

But yeah, totally an underdog show from the get- go. And I think if you watch it from season one with an open mind, the storylines are so driving. We had so many amazing conversations. Season one, remember Mikel from season one?

Yeah.

That was one of the first, I think, really jarring gay storylines on Bravo. His dad's reaction to him telling him he was gay, that was for real. So I feel like we were one of some of the OGs and the diversity.

I love Vanderpump Rules, and this is not to discredit Lisa Vanderpump or certain cast members, but that show takes place in West Hollywood and it took a while for that show to have openly gay people on it. Whereas this show takes place in the South and has primarily featured gay people and gay plot lines since season one, which felt very shocking and refreshing and also just very human, because obviously, there's gay people in the South, even in Charleston.

I think also to your point of it being filmed in West Hollywood, a lot of the Vanderpump people that got on Vanderpump were trying to be actors or trying to have some sort of rise to start them. You're in Hollywood, of course.You move from Budfuck nowhere to Hollywood, you want to make it. Here, none of us are trying to be aspiring actors or make music or do ... You know what I mean? Anything in the entertainment sector. So all of us really truly love what we do here in Charleston and we love our friend groups so intensely. I think that makes it a bit more, I would say real feeling, I guess. I want to say more real than.

Charleston doesn't have a Hollywood Boulevard. They don't have movie studios and record studios and modeling contracts the same way. So these wins from the show probably feel more earned because you're like, "Yeah, we were just working at a bar in Charleston." There wasn't a path there from the start.

Now Maddi is DJing in these big venues and so it's so fun to see. It's really, really cool. I used to see Michols walking to class at College of Charleston in his little booty shorts that he wears and it's so refreshing to see him really fulfilling and catching wins with this whole TV situation.

As you were talking earlier about these very real plot lines, especially with queerness or race on the show, there are shows all over Bravo that have these conversations. In a place like Charleston, I think it feels more heated.

How do you balance the intensity of filming, especially this most recent season, the Emmy of it all, with going back to your real lives off the show, where you still have to like each other, you’re still friends, you’re still hanging out. Do you feel like it's carrying more into the off season, or do you still have that camaraderie that you had from season one?

I think right now it's pretty divided. I would say because of the long-term friendships that we do have… I've known Bradley since I was 19. I'm 28 now. Holy shit. So it really is like I have a deep-rooted friendship with these people. I've known TJ since I was 18. Molly's probably my newest friend that I've known now for three years. And so we have really deep friendships and they do become affected by the things that people say and do on the show and off season two. Charleston is so small, it is so small. I don't think I can emphasize that enough. Charleston is so small. And so when something happens like the Emmy comments, it's either you have to just completely let her go or keep being her friend because you just see them all the time. You know what I mean? How that works. And I cannot commend Bradley enough for his grace handling this whole situation because of course I'm not as graceful as he is, would've handled it a lot differently.

Most people aren't as graceful.

I would've handled it differently, but he is the epitome of class. He could have fulfilled the narrative of angry Black man, but the way that he's handled this is so beautiful and I couldn't commend him more. But the friendships are so real. I just hung out with Molly last night at wine night and so it does go deep. So these things continue. I'm like, "Pick up the cameras right now. Shit's going down right now.

We obviously want to talk about fashion. One of the things that killed me this season… I'm pretty sure you were the only person besides Maddie who understood what emo was and dressed appropriately for emo night. It was really shocking.

Emo to me is emotional. It's like, what's it called? Angsty teen. And that's what I really wanted to accomplish with the wig and then the little bunny eared hat. I was scared I was going to swallow it, so I just took it off. But I wanted to have fun with it. The whole thing was Amazon, by the way. Yeah,

Did Brad's wig kill you, by the way? Because every time I see a photo, even thinking about it now, I start laughing because it's so comical.

Have you ever seen the Vine where it's like, “Where's the fuckin’ blow?” Have you ever seen that one? That was him, jokingly, all night. I don't think they could air that on camera.

My friends and I made a sticker of it.

It was really fun, and I love dressing up. And then Julia walked out in the baddest outfit ever. She's not even an undercover baddie, because she doesn't wear the makeup and do the hair and stuff, but the body's tea, the face is tea. She puts on a corset and I'm like, it's over for these bitches. It's over. Because she does Pilates or whatever, strength training every day.

The most recent person we did for this particular series was Ciara, the week before the West stuff dropped. You found yourself in larger Bravo hot water with Watch What Happens Live when you said that West had slid into your DMs for a date. How did you navigate suddenly being like, "Wait, oh my God, there's way more people paying attention to what I'm saying." And also what happened behind the scenes after, if you don't mind me asking?

West and I went on a date. It was fun. Hate to say that he's a nice guy. He has a lot of swag, he has a lot of charm and I like that. He's a funny guy. Listen, I like funny and the date was really fun. He's being evil with the whole Amanda thing, straight up evil, which I was really surprised by. He's the town pole in New York, which is not in a negative connotation. He likes to go on dates and do that. He slept with literally everyone in New York.

Someone has to do it.

He slept with literally everyone. So for me, for him to pick Amanda was just really naughty and very gauche in my opinion. When I was at BravoCon, the Summer House girls were being mean to me. It's fine. I get it. I went on a date with West and whatever. I get that they don't like that. But Amanda was the only one that was nice to me. She sat with me and we sat in a media room together and she was like, "Oh yeah, your date with West. We pregamed it together. He was nervous. I gave him advice, whatever.” And I was like, at the time I thought they were just buddies. I was like, "Oh, that's so nice of you. What a good friend." But then now on this news, I'm like, girl, what were we doing? What were we doing in the apartment?

That's what's so interesting about this. I think it's probably why it's captivated so many people, because in the moment you're like, "Wow, she's being so nice. That's so nice of her." But then in hindsight, you're like, wait, what was her ulterior motive? There's so many moments like that that people are seeing.

Her being the only Summer House girl that was nice to me, I was like, "Damn, she's a girl for real." And now looking back, she probably just wanted the T from me. It was interesting to say the least. I definitely feel for Ciara though. I feel like that's just a horrendous dilemma to be in.

And I got swept up in it and yeah, he texted me an apology for getting me caught up in the whole thing. I was like, "I'm the last apology on your motherfucking list.” I was like, "You need to get on the phone and contact some other people.”

Don't use ChatGPT for the apology too, please.

KJ talked about his apology and that sounded very ChatGPT, but I feel like mine was very off the dome. I was like, "You stay off the internet, you do not need to be not contacting. I appreciate the apology, but I'm the last person. I don't feel wronged at all in any way.”

So let's talk about fashion. I've pulled some of your looks

So this first one, I think this one was from BravoCon. Talk to me through this dress, because it is so gorgeous with this applique in the middle.

Thank you. So this is actually a broach. Bring back broaches. The dress is just the pure white and it's such a thick material, so it's not feed through at all. I really love the rushing because my stomach is probably my least favorite part about my body because I did lose weight, so the skin's a little ... So I love the ruching that this does, because you don't see the texture of my stomach, but then I also love the pin there, bringing the attention to the center of my chest. My boobs are my favorite part of my body. And I love how the arms are out, the shoulders are out. I don't know if you can't really tell in this picture, but I'm super glossed up.

I have a lot of oil on, and so I'm really shining. I do not like shimmer body oil. I only wear gloss body oil. I think the shimmer's a little strippery, I like looking like shea butter down. You know what I mean? That with the really light hair and the really pink makeup and the light lip, I think is really gorgeous. The hair was a lot better when I was leaving the hotel, but the Nevada heat got to it and I don't love the way it looks in this.

This purse I'm wearing in every single picture and every single time that I'm out because I carry so much. It's like an abyss inside of there. So I keep all my makeup with me. I have hair tools in there and stuff like that. But this dress I really loved with the leg slit. It was really gorgeous when I was walking.

I'm always reminded of Roberto Cavalli, Herve Leger, with your wardrobe. You wore this dress in, I think, season three. This was also very Roberto Cavalli to me.

I think this might be Michael Costello. The theme of the prom night was actually '80s prom. So I wanted an applique with the roses, the cheetah print. The nails were hot pink. I thought that was a really fun time. And then TJ is matching me with a cheetah print underneath with his shirt.

Then the hair, we did a really big side part, the eyes kind of catty. I was kind of torn up between doing an updo because the neck is so high, but I think I liked the hair down. I thought it played into the tacky thing. I loved this look.

That’s why we love Cavalli though, because it's so tacky. It's beautiful, which is the best part. Did you start working with a stylist at all over the time on the show or have you always dressed yourself?

Everything's just me.

When did you start really paying attention to fashion or just putting yourself together? Have you always been like that or is that something that became heightened because of being on TV?

Heightened because of TV, obviously. And then my sister runs a very prominent fashion podcast called Nymphet Alumni. She kind of gets on me heavy about what I wear. I also lost maybe 30 pounds. I'm 5'3", so losing 30 pounds was a big change physically for me.

I started feeling more comfortable wearing tighter clothing and things that showed my arms off more, my legs off more. Even when I was a bit bigger, I still liked tight clothing, but the thing is I wasn't size aware, so I would be squeezing myself into all these outfits that just were so unflattering. Now I feel better wearing the bandage and wearing the things that show my chest off. And I have the boobs now. I feel a lot more confident now.

Speaking of Nymphet Alumni, I just love that that's your sister. Obviously many PAPER readers also love Nymphet Alumni.

And the thing is her fashion is so much more different than mine. She likes vintage Chanel... She likes a lot of archival pieces and she takes the time to source her clothing. Me, if I see it online, I like it. I'll fucking buy it and that's it. You know what I mean? We are so different, but we both are very conscious about what we are putting on our bodies and we both have very specific brands, and we carry an aura in ourselves.

Well, this next one, speaking of Herve Leger, clearly you're a fan of the designer.

Thank you. It's this beautiful chocolate. It's actually not Herve, It's House of CB. I actually love this one picture. I can send it to you. It's a picture of, I think it's Adriana Lima, or Miranda Kerr, old school, old school for a Victoria's Secret fashion show… this dress with the hair flowy and then the big statement earring. And just again, I'm glossed down in this and this was one of my favorite dresses. I actually rented this off of Pickle.

Pickle's the best for that.

If I'm photographed in this and on TV with it, I'm not going to wear it again, unfortunately. I am an outfit repeater in my everyday life, but if I'm on TV or photographed in it, I will not wear it again. I don't like to buy and then just kind of have it. I would rather rent.

This next one was one of your confessional looks from this season. This dress is gorgeous. Talk me through this dress.

I rarely wear my hair up because I don't like my ears, but this look specifically was a high neck and I knew that I could not do the hair down. So I did the two big pieces in the front. I loved, loved, loved, again, the rushing on this dress. You could not clock a stomach. It's so good. It was very telenovella for me.

You can't see in the picture, but I had these really big chunky cross earrings on. I kind of gave telenovella Catholic mistress. I really loved that. Yeah. And then I had the bun and then the hair in front so the ears didn't show. And then the makeup was just ... I mean, it boots the house down. It was over.

I wear my baby necklace, and you'll see it in every single picture, I never take it off. It's my baby necklace. I'm Roman Catholic and I've had it since I was a baby. And I thought that was just the perfect piece for the dress and it just ate so well on camera.

Now let's talk about your reunion dress. I know you love a chain. That's a thing I saw a lot in all of your necklaces, too. You're never doing a huge chunky necklace. You love something a little more dangly.

I saw this and I knew that nobody else was going to go gold because I think the theme was just sparkly metallics and I knew nobody else was going to wear this color and I thought it just looked fabulous. Do I wish it was a bit more red bronzy? Yes. It kind of pulled a bit too yellow on camera, but in person it was a little bit more like true gold. The hair, I had a really deep tan. I had laid out for six hours the day before and I had a really, really deep tan.

I'm glossed up, again. And then I love a neutral shoe. You will never catch me wearing a big fancy shoe or colored shoe. I love a neutral brown shoe. I like the legs to look long because I'm very short. A nude shoe to make the legs look long, elevated, gorgeous. And then the jewelry was Nicole Rose. If you're on Watch What Happens Live!, she comes up and gives you jewels. She jeweled, I think all of us, all the girls for this.

Two questions. Did you get a reunion stage or are you doing a WWHL reunion this year?

We got a real reunion.

Oh, thank god.

I'm so excited. Stunningly gorgeous. It was insane. But I mean, I'm just grateful that we got a real reunion. I think it was well deserved for us for sure.

My other question is body oil. Talk me through it. I also tried on a glitter recently… how I got it is so long and stupid, but basically someone gave birth in a fancy hospital in New York and they give the new moms Chanel perfumed body glitter. And he was like, "She doesn't like it. Do you want it? " I took it, I put it on. I was like, "Okay, so my name is Candy and I'm working down in Hoboken, New Jersey."

You're on the Bunny Ranch. [laughs] So body oil, number one, you're going to lotion up. This is not sponsored. I pay with my own money for this. This is Naturium, from Target.

So that on first and then you're using the same Glow Getter Naturium body oil. There's a body butter and then an oil, and just both of those things stacked on top of each other. And the Palmer's for everyday, the vitamin E cocoa butter block. This one smells so good. It melts into the skin so gorgeously, you just look healthy and you put it on from the neck down. I always oil from the neck down. I want the chest, the clavicles looking greased. I want the arm looking greased. And then always no glitter. I don't like glitter.

I will say to everyone listening, speaking of the bunny ranch, a friend of mine who was a stripper said that that's also how you stay warm when it's cold outside. It's just body butter and oil all over and then the wind doesn't penetrate you. It's all I do now.

One thing I won't do? I hate a coat. I hate to wear a jacket. I hate to wear a coat. I would rather be cold. Like Cardi B said, a ho never get cold. You will see me freezing my nuts off. I hate coming to New York in the wintertime because I hate a big jacket. I hate killing the outfit and killing the body with a jacket.

That's why you live in Charleston, where it never gets cold.

And the thing is, in Charleston, we have that really humid heat, that wet heat. And so everybody looks glowy and sweaty and I love that look. I think it looks so healthy and beautiful. I think I'm so horny for when a little bit of sweat happens right in between the tits. My God, that's an accessory in itself

Images courtesy of NBCUniversal/Getty