What the RHOSLC Cast Wears in Season 7: Mesh, a Polka-Dot Puffer and Why the Portraits Are All Silver

Key takeaways

• Season 7 opened with a supersized episode, Chosen Family, on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. It reached Peacock the following morning.
• The official cast portraits for this season are head-to-toe silver — strapless columns, feathers, sequins — shot against a red room and beaded curtains.
• Inside the episode the palette is colder and stranger than the portraits: printed mesh, a polka-dot puffer, grey plaid, a ribbed knit, a rosette dress.
• Mesh is the fabric of the season. One label selling the studded, printed version listed tights at $38.00, a top at $78.00 and a dress at $118.00 on its own site when we checked.
• Nine women are in the cast: seven full-time, two in "friend of" roles, one of them brand new.

Quick answer — the promotional silver is a set piece, built for one afternoon in front of a camera. What you actually see for the next four months is sheer mesh layered over something opaque, quilted outerwear cut short, and confessional dresses chosen for how they hold a frame from the chest up. That last rule explains most of it. A Housewives confessional is a tight shot, so texture near the collarbone does the work that a hemline would do anywhere else.

Where can you watch the Season 7 premiere?

Bravo aired it live on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. PT, in a longer-than-usual cut. Peacock picked it up the next morning, which is where most people will start. Cable alternatives are the usual four: DirecTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and Sling.

What did the cast actually wear in the premiere?

Sheer, printed and quilted, mostly. A wardrobe blog that logs Bravo pieces episode by episode catalogued the opening hour as a run of mesh and pattern: a printed mesh top with embellished sneakers in a kitchen-table scene, a polka-dot puffer coat, a grey plaid mesh top, a pink printed crop-and-trouser set, a black blazer pinned at the lapel, high-waisted belted trousers, a black-and-white sweater, a brown ribbed confessional look and a blue rosette dress.

Read that list twice and the shape of the season appears. Nothing is quiet. But almost nothing is a gown either, which is the difference between this franchise and the one in New York.

Who wore what in Episode 2?

The same wardrobe log tied these pieces to named women after the second hour. One tracker is not enough for a label, so we describe the garment.

Look where the detail sits: a cape, a bare shoulder, a puff sleeve. All three live above the collarbone, which is the confessional rule from the quick answer showing up on schedule.

Episode 3, from the same log:

Why is every cast portrait silver this year?

Because a group portrait has to survive being cropped nine different ways — for a poster, a thumbnail, a banner, a phone screen. One metallic tells the eye "same show" before anyone reads a name. Bravo's own behind-the-scenes gallery shows the line-up in silver strapless dresses, one version with feathers, another in heavy sequins, staged in a red room behind beaded curtains. It is a marketing costume and nobody pretends otherwise. The mechanics of that gap between promo and episode are the same ones we walked through in how TV wardrobes actually work.

What does that mesh actually cost?

We did not price a lookalike of any specific garment, because sheer printed mesh is a category rather than one item. Instead we checked a label that sells exactly this kind of studded and printed mesh, on the brand's own site rather than a reseller, so the numbers are the ones a shopper would pay.

Prices move and colourways sell out, so treat the ladder as the useful part: roughly $40 for an accessory, $80 for a top, $120 for a dress in this fabric.

How do you get the Salt Lake look without the labels?

Three rules cover most of it. Layer the sheer piece over something solid, never on its own, which is what keeps mesh wearable at a school pickup in October. Keep the outerwear short and quilted, because a cropped puffer over a printed set reads as deliberate and a long coat swallows the print. And put the texture up high — rosettes, ribbing, a wide plaid — where a confessional camera lives.

Sharper versions of the same thinking sit elsewhere in our reality wardrobe notes: the ballroom's stretch-and-stone rules in the DWTS costume department, the tartan hierarchy in The Traitors, and the judged end of the craft in this year's costume design winners. For dressed-up evenings there is the Emmys carpet, and for a colder, quieter palette, the Carolyn Bessette wardrobe.

What about the workout clothes?

Gym and rehearsal kit is not our desk. Anything a cast member trains in belongs with Activewear On Air. We stay on the dresses, coats and knits.

When is the next episode?

Episode 4 aired Wednesday, Oct. 7. Episode 5 is listed for Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo, with Peacock the following day. We update this page each week with the looks worth naming, so the URL stays the same. If you would rather read about clothes being made than worn, the Project Runway finale is the other thing on our calendar and our shopping notes this month.

Sources — Bravo's Daily Dish (Season 7 cast bios, everything-to-know and the behind-the-scenes portrait gallery); The Hollywood Reporter (premiere date, time and streaming); Big Blonde Hair (episode-by-episode wardrobe log); TVmaze (episode 2 and 3 listings); Wikipedia's Season 7 page (episode 3 air date); The Futon Critic's Bravo listings (episode 4 air date, episode 5 listing). Brand names for individual garments are not asserted here unless the label or two independent reports confirmed them. Prices are from the brand's own site at the time shown.