Welcome Back To Stassi Schroeder’s World

Stassi Schroeder will never be caught dead in sneakers. “If you ever see me wearing tennis shoes on Instagram, you need to DM me because that means it’s been a rough time,” she instructs me.

We’re on the shoe floor at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, during a break on the 38-year-old reality star’s press tour for her new Hulu series House of Stassi, premiering on July 30. She’s already picked out her looks for the week, which includes an interview on Good Morning America and a star-studded premiere party the next night. She’s hoping to find some Chanel heels to complement them. “Normally, I always find a Chanel shoe that I love, but their new ones haven’t inspired me,” she says.

Inspired by Zendaya’s themed press tour looks, Schroeder is modeling her New York ‘fits after her style on House of Stassi, which marks her first time as both the leading star and executive producer of a reality show, following the drama within her friend circle and even her own home. Given how the series pans out, her wardrobe might be the most meticulously planned aspect of her show. “I get a clothing rack out, and what I put on that rack is what I’m willing to wear on camera,” she says, standing near Carrie Bradshaw’s beloved Manolo Blahniks.

Although she settled on a quiet luxury-coded rack with “browns and navies,” she’s learned from her Vanderpump Rules days to stop worrying about timelessness. “I thought I was going to look back and love my statement necklaces for the rest of time,” she quips. “I like to lean in to trends more now because everything’s going to look dated at some point.”

As soon as Schroeder, then just a waitress at Lisa Vanderpump’s Beverly Hills hot spot SUR, stepped onto our Bravo screens in 2013, a star was born — one that’s outlived those dated necklaces. She was the quintessential queen bee that viewers loved to hate, then just loved, cracking catty jokes in her confessionals, confronting frenemies with the ease of a detective, and making the biggest deals out of her birthdays, which always ended in disaster (but made great TV). Her slapping Kristen Doute after finding out she slept with her then-boyfriend Jax Taylor lives on as one of the greatest reality TV moments, and remains a viral meme.

When I was on [Vanderpump Rules], I was like, ‘I wonder when my spinoff's going to happen.’

“The slap is a mind-f*ck in my head,” she tells me nearly a decade later, as we sit for lunch at L’Avenue restaurant upstairs. “I struggle with it because sometimes I'm like, ‘I don't regret that sh*t,’ and other times I'm like, ‘No, you can't treat people like that.’ I don’t want my kids to think that’s a normal reaction to being upset.”

Eventually, Schroeder’s antics caught up to her, when a controversial action against a cast member resulted in her dismissal from the show in 2020. (“I’ve done a lot of things that I regret,” she says of her time on VPR.) She built a new life offscreen, welcoming two children with her husband Beau Clark and maintaining a fan base with a podcast and three New York Times bestselling books. But despite finding success without reality TV, she always knew she’d make her way back.

“I’m great at it, and I love it,” she tells me, taking a sip of her St. Germain cocktail. “And I always knew that it wasn't going to end with Vanderpump Rules. When I was on the show, I was like, ‘I wonder when my spinoff's going to happen.’”

Schroeder willed House of Stassi into existence — perhaps under slightly false pretenses. She spent over three years pitching the show around Hollywood with dreams of landing it at Hulu. The streamer wanted her to reunite with her former boss on Vanderpump Villa, but wouldn’t green-light her own series just yet, so Schroeder took matters into her own hands and issued a press release announcing a new show called Stassi Says. “I went on Good Morning America and delusionally talked about it as if it had already been filmed, like, ‘Yeah, this is great,’” she recalls. “Meanwhile, not green-lit, not shot.”

Once Hulu obliged, the show evolved into House of Stassi, which follows Schroeder’s career and home life with Clark, and their ever-changing relationships with friends and family. But what separates House of Stassi from the typical family docuseries is that it’s a show about making a show. Instead of simply breaking the fourth wall, Schroeder tears down the entire production tent.

“I was like, ‘If we're going to make the realest show possible, we need to acknowledge that it took a lot for us to get this show made, and what being on a show actually does to relationships and friendships.’ That's the realest part,” she says. “I also didn’t want to take the same format as a Bravo show. I wanted to do something different.”

In a first for reality TV, Schroeder shows test footage that sold House of Stassi to executives and takes viewers through the process of assembling her show, like giving her cast a crash course on filming. “Don’t be afraid of me. Don’t worry about pissing me off. And I need you to say everything you're thinking or feeling when you're feeling it,” she recalls instructing them. She even admits to addressing her friendship breakup with former Vanderpump Rules co-star Katie Maloney just because she wanted her on the show.

Getting a show made is just one big f*cking chess game, and I don't even know how to play chess.

“We didn't have a big fight that ended everything, I literally just backed off,” Schroeder says. “Every time I did see her, she seemed way happier, like somebody I wanted to reconnect with. And when we were about to start shooting, I was like, ‘This would literally be the perfect opportunity for us to do that.’ It felt more natural than if the cameras weren't there.”

She laughs hearing herself say this out loud. “It's f*cking mental to be like, ‘It makes more sense when the cameras are there.’” Nonetheless, Schroeder stands by living her life on-camera, even when it brings up tough issues in her personal relationships.

On the first episode of House of Stassi, she quips that she’d “never sell a show” about her problems with Clark. By the finale, she’s crying aboard the Queen Mary ship when Clark and their friends confront her about said issues, including his feelings of disconnection from his wife as she goes after her goals and he’s unable to return to his career.

Months later, Schroeder is still annoyed that the season ends with one of her signature crash-outs, but she’s glad the show forced her and Clark to hash things out, calling it her form of therapy. “I hate that it looks like we just argue all the time, because there is nothing that could happen...” she pauses, stopping herself from tearing up. “He would have to cheat on me or belittle me for me to not love this man. I am so f*cking lucky I have somebody that’s so supportive of everything I want to do and is able to handle all the sh*t I can’t handle. If that’s the lowest of lows, I’ll take it.”

In the end, Schroeder opted to keep their darkest moments on House of Stassi, saying there’s “not many shows where the gender roles are switched in the household” — and because it’s good TV. Her only regret from the new series? Succumbing to sweatpants. “There are three scenes where I put on sweatsuits, and I'm like, ‘Why the f*ck, you dumb b*tch? You know better than that,’” she says. “At least they're matching.”

After lunch, we return downstairs to purchase two pairs of shoes — peach-hued heels from Dries Van Noten, and a pair of black Dior stilettos with a bow, which she picked up at my urging. (“It’s his influence,” she tells her publicist.)

Schroeder tells me she hopes House of Stassi is just the beginning of her reality TV empire. But first, she needs a second season. “Of course I've started thinking about it,” she teases. “Getting a show made is just one big f*cking chess game, and I don't even know how to play chess.” Even if this show isn’t the victory she’s manifesting, Schroeder feels a “great sense of calm and pride” for what she’s made, and refuses to leave the genre again without a fight.

That said, she won’t become a Real Housewife anytime soon. “I think the goal of every Housewife is to do what I've done,” she says with a smirk, before clarifying, “Well, if this is a success.”