“You can’t just be a cute face. Everybody’s not cut out for this,” says Evelyn Lozada, crossing her ankles in Saint Laurent patent leather pumps. The TV personality is talking, of course, about her show Basketball Wives—the cult reality hit created by Shaunie O’Neal, Shaquille’s ex-wife, that follows a group of close “friends” who were all once engaged or married to various basketball players. Tonight, the show returns to VH1 for its sixth season, and, for the first time in five years, will reunite its original girl gang: Lozada, O’Neal, and Tami Roman. “They had to bring the OGs back—we have confidence and personality,” Lozada says matter-of-factly.
Of the three, Lozada remains the show’s MVP, thanks to her sharp tongue, but it’s her next-level accessories game that keeps us coming back. Each week, she pulls from a rotating lineup of designer bags and door-knocker diamond earrings, from custom five-inch hoops to multiple carat studs. “I have to always have some pair of earrings on every day,” she explains. “I could never [leave] the house without earrings. Who [leaves] the house without earrings?” That larger-than-life approach to fashion is contagious, too. “I actually ended up getting Shaunie a pair [of bamboo hoops] in the Bronx the other day, and even she said, I feel like I need them bigger.”
Yet Lozada’s best style tip lies in the witty way she mixes high and low pieces together: Tom Ford thigh-high boots and Asos chokers, or Louis Vuitton bags with Nike Air Force Ones. “It’s all about having fun,” she says. “The bling may not always be diamonds, but it can still be cute. I’ll mix anything: Cartier bracelets with Claire’s.” Read more
