13 Things You Never Knew About Getting Dressed on "The Bachelor"
The Bachelor is here to make sure 2019 is filled with love, tears, and tons of roses. On season 23, single bae Colton Underwood is hoping to find his dream girl out of a pool of 23 brilliant single ladies. This former NFL player starred on season 14 of The Bachelorette when he totally fell for the woman of the hour, Becca Kufrin. Now, he's trying his own luck in the hot seat.
That being said, if the dream dates and juicy moments don't have you obsessed with The Bachelor, the fashion will do the trick. Why? Because you won't see the bachelor or the bachelorette romping around in jeans and an old hoodie. The main baes are always dressed to the nines, and it's definitely not by accident.
Here's what goes down before the cameras start rolling...
1. The bachelor or bachelorette gets a stylist, but the other contestants are on their own.
Stylist Cary Fetman has worked with the show since its second season in 2002. He works with the star of each season one-on-one, but the contestants have to pull together their looks without professional help.
A post shared by Cary Fetman (@caryfetman) on Aug 8, 2016 at 4:22pm PDT
2. The bachelorette's fittings can take up to two days.
Before JoJo Fletcher appeared on season 12 of The Bachelorette, Cary sat down with her to ask questions about what she likes to wear. Then he went shopping! "The first fitting, which takes us two days, is literally 18 or 19 racks of clothes. What we do in the beginning is pretty much the whole show," he told the Hollywood Reporter.
3. Contestants receive a packing list.
Girls on The Bachelor are told to bring enough dresses for 10 Rose Ceremonies, according to Fashionista.
And there are a lot of things you can't bring because they don't look good on camera (see #6 below for more on that). No "stripes, small checkered patterns, big patterns, and solid white," Sean Lowe, a contestant on season eight of The Bachelorette and the star of season 17 of The Bachelor, recounted in his book.
A post shared by Whitney Fransway (@whitneyfransway) on Jan 8, 2017 at 12:36pm PST
4. One bachelorette received a $350,000 wardrobe budget.
Emily Maynard, who starred on The Bachelorette's eighth season and The Bachelor's 15th season, was allotted $350,000 by ABC to spend on clothes for the show when she was the bachelorette. "It was bigger than any previous season – and we still went over," Cary later told the Hollywood Reporter. Her pricey duds included a $40,000 Randi Rahm gown and $1,045 Christian Louboutin heels. I wonder if she rocked a designer fanny pack or two in there.
5. Contestants go to extreme lengths to look good on the show.
Olivia Caridi, a contestant on season 20 of The Bachelor, reportedly spent $40,000 on her wardrobe for the show. But as blogger Dana Weiss told Mic, "I did the math, and unless [Caridi] is wearing 40 pairs of Christian Louboutins, I don't think it's feasible... she's wearing brands like Alice & Olivia, which [are] $300 to $400 dresses."
That said, there's no question that some contestants really do spend a lot of money on the show.
"I had re-mortgaged my house and I spent something like $8,000 on clothing (which is still a lot)," Jillian Harris, who appeared on season 13 of The Bachelor and season five of The Bachelorette, wrote on her blog.
6. Producers ensure that no two girls wear the same dress on the first night of the season.
When contestants meet the bachelor for the first time, they want to stand out - so it makes sense that everyone should have their own look.
"You're by yourself in a hotel room and you come with a dress and probably a backup dress," Jaclyn Swartz, who appeared on season 16 of The Bachelor, as well as spin-offs Bachelor Pad and Bachelor in Paradise, told Fashionista. "The stylist Cary Fetman and a producer will come around to [your] room and they'll approve the dress for the first night. That's usually to make sure no two girls are wearing the same dress."
7. Producers will suggest outfit changes to contestants if something doesn't work on camera.
Remember the no-stripes, no-white rules? Those guidelines are in place to make sure that every outfit pops on camera.
"[The producers] would never be like, 'Oh, that's ugly. Take it off,'" Jaclyn told Fashionista. "They would say, 'It's just not translating well on camera. You should change, but that's to benefit you.'"
8. Contestants are given hints about what to wear.
Dates range from a peaceful picnic in the park to a couples' yoga lesson to a pool party - how does anyone prepare for all those dates, especially since contestants don't know what kinds of dates they'll go on in advance?
"Before dates, a producer will tell you more or less what you need to wear," Sharleen Joynt, a contestant on season 18 of The Bachelor wrote on her blog. "Nothing that will give away the activity, but vague things like, 'Something comfortable you can walk in.'"
9. Contestants sometimes share clothes.
If you pay close attention throughout the course of a single season, you might notice the same clothes popping up on different contestants. The same way you might borrow your college roommate's going-out dress, Bachelor girls share clothes.
"If you saw Amanda Stanton, Leah Block and Lauren Bushnell all wore the same dress three different weeks in a row," Caila Quinn, who appeared on season 20 of The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, revealed to Fashionista. The girls took turns wearing a black and gold sequined bodycon dress by Dress the Population that originally belonged to Amanda. "If it's a good-fitting dress, why not share?"
10. If you make it to the final two, producers will pick your dress for you - and pay for it.
"I don't know for sure if the final two girls get their makeup done (I didn't make it that far on The Bachelor), but I do know that they are given dresses for the last rose ceremony," Ali Fedotowsky, who appeared on season 14 of The Bachelor and season six of The Bachelorette, told E!. "So I assume they get hair and makeup as well."
The finale dresses are beautiful, but there's more to them than meets the eye. As Bustle points out, season 16 winner Courtney Robertson was dressed in black just weeks after fellow contestant Kacie B. called her a black widow.
Plus, it didn't hurt that the season 16 bachelor, Ben Flajnik, told producers that black was his favorite color.
And when it came time for Sean Lowe to decide between Catherine Giudici and Lindsey Yenter on season 17 of The Bachelor, the producers gave Catherine (the winner) a gold dress and Lindsey (the runner-up) a silver dress. Brutal symbolism.
11. At least one contestant paid for lessons from a professional makeup artist.
"I've never been that great at doing makeup, so I had a professional makeup artist come to my house to teach me how to do everything and make me a list of everything I need to buy," Olivia Caridi from season 20 of the Bachelor told Allure. "She taught me how to contour. I didn't even know what that was. She works with people on reality TV, so she knew that there wouldn't be a lot of sleeping, so she advised on buying a white or a nude eye liner to put on my eyes to make them look bigger, which I didn't even know was a thing. Then, a couple days before filming, I went to Sephora and bought foundation, eye shadow palettes, brow fillers, like every single thing you could ever imagine. That was fun and expensive, but it was worth it."
12. The contestants have a lot of time to pamper themselves.
Not every contestant gets to go on a date every week, which means there's a ton of downtime that you don't get to see on camera.
"We were always doing beauty routines," Olivia told Allure. "There were so many days where we did a lot of mud masks and self-tanning sessions. We were painting our nails all the time because we were constantly changing outfits, and we wanted to match the nails to the outfit. There was a lot of beauty and pampering for each other that never really gets aired."
13. Getting ready for dates isn't as easy as you might think.
"The lighting in the mansion was really bad for makeup, so I did mine on the balcony every day," Ashley Iaconetti, a contestant on season 19 of The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, told Allure. "There were maybe four mirrors in the house of 23 girls because mirrors make it hard for the camera guys."
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