Chrissy Teigen Talks The White House, Bras, and Starting Cooking School
Last night, FashionEtc headed to Bloomingdales to fête the department store's latest shop-in-shop, showcasing RAOUL. The line is full of bright colors, feminine silhouettes, and fun patterns. No wonder Oscar nominee Viola Davis and Rebecca Romijn have chosen the label's looks for red carpet events.
Over mini-cupcakes, we caught up with another fan of the emerging line—Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Chrissy Teigen—about her love for Marchesa, hair snafus at the White House, and our plan for a variety television show starring the model and her crooner fiancé, John Legend. Network execs, you're welcome.
Photo courtesy of Raoul, Getty Images
A look from RAOUL's Spring Summer 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collection; Chrissy Teigen in RAOUL
What's your connection to RAOUL? What do you love about the line?
It was actually one of the first brands I was presented with at my agency to come out and celebrate that I really, truly, actually liked the line. We always get sent a bag of things and you have to go through and pick out what you want to wear, and this one was the very first time I had trouble deciding.
We saw that you had a little beauty emergency at the White House State Dinner. You pulled out a hair extension. How did you recover other than tweeting about it?
I wrapped it in a little ball around my finger and stuck it in John's pocket. I actually had to even it [out] though... so then I had to take out the other one.
How was the whole experience?
It was awesome. It's always very surreal to go there. I think it's my 4th time there, and every time I'm like, I can't believe they keep inviting me back. It's pretty unreal. I'm actually really looking forward to the Correspondents' Dinner because that's the fun one with all the entertainers and comedy. That one, I remember getting home last year and sitting on the bed and being like, "that was the most amazing night of my life."
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How do you decide what to wear and how to prepare for each event?
Well, obviously at the White House, if you're going to be one of the younger people there, and a model and a swimsuit model, you want to tone it down a lot so you try to tone it down but then you don't look like yourself. Yesterday the one thing was: "Do I wear a bra with this dress or not?" It's not like it would be vulgar but it made it look like there was nothing there. It's actually better. A bra makes you have cleavage. I don't know if I should have cleavage at the White House or not! It's so hard to think about. Bra won in the end, and I had my drink like this [motions in front of her chest] all night. It's pretty easy to dress for that. I love a gown; I love a good gown. It's hard to find a skanky gown so I usually do okay.
Any particular designers you always look to?
There's nothing like a Marchesa moment. I remember just feeling like a princess when they let me go try on dresses there for the American Music Awards years ago. "Oh well, we'll design a purse for you and give you Louboutins since we work with them. I was like "princess moment!" Literally, you feel like a different person when you're in it.
We love your food blog. We've been pinning some of your recipes. Do you have any plans to pursue cooking further?
I'm going to cooking school in May. I'm going to do a condensed version of the French Culinary Institute (in New York.) It's right down by my house too. It's on Grand [Street], and I live in the East Village. I want to be credible in the food world. I don't ever want to pretend like I'm a chef of any sort but I want to the learn the basics and really get it down. I want to be more secure in my cooking because right now, John calls me the "Insecure Chef". That would be the name of my show because I'll make something and throw it away.
Or a cookbook. Would you ever come out with a cookbook?
Oh yeah, definitely.
Have you ever been approached?
Yeah but I don't feel like I've established anything. I don't want to do anything until people would respect it. I'm trial and error, I'm all over the place.
You should have a cooking show-slash-variety hour with you and John. Cooking, singing. We'd watch!
That would be amazing. Food is so big now, and the food world is so major, and people are all trying to break out into it. I know that if I meet a chef who is all celebrity and no background, I'm always a little hesitant so I don't want to be that myself.
Would you ever completely forgo modeling and take up cooking full-time?
I never really thought of myself as a model in the first place, but yeah, definitely I would. There's something that you do, and there's something that's your passion.
Have you decided about food for the wedding?
We're looking very farm-to-table, like ABC Kitchen. Very simple and clean and delicious. We also have a side of us that loves hearty food—ribs!—so we're going to try to find an in-between. But either way, very flavorful, seasonal. We want to do fall. We'll see.
