Dorinda Medley Kicked Off Her Book Tour With Latex Boots and a Full House

The book’s title is based on one of her now signature phrases, a reference to a moment from RHONY when she butted heads with her costars while hosting at her Berkshires home, Blue Stone Manor. The book delves into her humble upbringing in western Massachusetts, her cashmere business in London, and her ascent into RHONY stardom. Medley, who signed with powerhouse Simon & Schuster and nabbed a book-tour launch at the Strand, certainly has pull: The event sold out and was packed to the brim with masked fans.

On the podium, she read an excerpt about the experience of giving birth to her daughter, Hannah. “I had done book signings where I sat behind a table, but this was the first time I was doing a reading. It elevated it to a whole new level,” Medley tells Vogue over the phone from Blue Stone Manor. “Then you are connecting your voice to the audience reading what you wrote. It was the first time that it hit me where I was an author and I had a book in the world.”

Her way with words elevated Medley beyond the bitchy, bubbly downing reality-television universe, but her fashion sense helped. During her six-season stint, her love for Ashish and Pucci was well documented. She counts London-based fashion critic Alexander Fury, editor Lynette Nylander, and stylist Mel Ottenberg, who filmed Medley traipsing around New York, as fans of herself and her style. After all, this is a woman who called Bergdorf Goodman her “therapy.”

For the event, Medley opted to dress classically but with her own twist, complete with her beloved black latex Christian Louboutin thigh-high boots. “I liked that I added the latex boots. It was sexy without being sexy. It was still studious,” she says, adding, “I wanted to do a muted intellectual look.” The day before, she headed to John Barrett for an “ashy” dye job. Makeup artist Luke Henderson gave her a natural makeup look the day of. “I wanted to go a bit more sophisticated with that ashy look. You have that ashy hair with a beautiful muted mocha top and those patent-leather Louboutins. It was very chic.” As for her final dose of advice? “You wear the clothes, the clothes don’t wear you.”