Erika Jayne Thinks We Should All be Mowing the Lawn in 5-Inch Pumps

The Real Housewife and superstar performer was inspired by all her personas for a new collaboration with ShoeDazzle.

Erika Girardi — better known as Erika Jayne — wears many, many hats in her life, but most of the time, she's juggling between her two major personas. There's Erika Girardi, the super-glam wife, mom and star of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," and Erika Jayne, the super-sexy, take-no-prisoners dance artist.

No matter what role she's filling, though, she's always doing it with killer style, and now, she's partnering with ShoeDazzle to bring her fashion sensibilities to the masses. The collection is divided into two categories: Erika Girardi, styles fit for a CEO ruling the boardroom — think bedazzled pumps and snakeskin sandals — and Erika Jayne, shoes perfect for hitting the stage at your favorite club, like neon green platforms and pool slides emblazoned with "Pretty Mess," one of Jayne's signature slogans. And the accompanying campaign aims to show that you can live out either fantasy in your every day life, too.

We hopped on the phone with Jayne to get the story behind the shoes and why we should all be mowing the lawn in five-inch pumps. I told her I'd need to channel my inner Erika Jayne to pull it off, and her advice? "You should be doing that every day, honey!" Truly, words to live by.

How did this partnership come about?

ShoeDazzle recognized that pumps [are so important] in my life — I have a billion pairs. It's just the perfect collaboration, quite honestly, and I'm so excited. They look incredible — I've worn them, I've tested them, I believe in them and we get to see one or two pairs on 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' this year.

You are such a collector of shoes; why did you want to design your own?

I think it's great to offer people a little bit of what I'm so fortunate to have, you know? I've collected for a long time; I have the best of the best stuff, and I want to be able to offer all of that fun, incredible design and imagination and creativity to people at a great price point, and I think that that's what we've been able to do.

We're offering Erika Girardi, who is a boss in the board room and kicking ass at work, and then we're offering Erika Jayne, who's kicking ass in your fantasy performance life. It's a really fun collection, and it goes a lot of ways.

I was going to ask why you wanted to do collections inspired by Erika Girardi and Erika Jayne.

Well, listen, I believe that we are several people in one throughout the day. The way I interact at work is not who I am at home, and it's not who I am at nighttime having a great time, so you need to have shoes that represent each side of your personality and each side of your being.

What was the process of working on the collection like?

I was so excited to be able to go down to ShoeDazzle's fabulous campus in El Segundo — they have their shit so together, it's incredible. They let me look through all of their products and all of the shoes. It was like a dream. I sat down with the design team and really talked about, 'What do you like? What do you wear? What is happening? Is it sandals? Is it booties? Is it pumps? Is it 120s?'

We were able to come together with this great collection. When they explained the ShoeDazzle customer to me, it was exactly who Erika Girardi is and Erika Jayne is, and it just fit so seamlessly. We had lots of meetings. We have a beautiful video that showcases all of that.

Do you have a favorite style?

I have to be honest: We have this pump that is white with black graffiti and it says 'Pretty Mess' all over it. Now, I'm being biased because 'Pretty Mess' is my baby, right? But to see that in a shoe, and I wear it — I feel fucking badass, is what I feel. It's great. I love the highlighter mesh bootie, because highlighter's so big for spring; it's in the campaign.

I have every shoe. There's a lot of fun stuff in here. The gold Erika Girardi pump is snakeskin — it just looks so rich and so luxurious. That's what people need to understand: The products, they look wonderful and you're going to have great wear out of them. I'm wearing them and I'm proud to wear them.

What was the inspiration behind the campaign?

We wanted to show two separate lifestyles. It's really true and you can look good doing it all from day to night. You can mow the lawn in gold snakeskin pumps. Okay? You just can. You can clean the pool in leopard, clear, plastic sandals, alright? It can be done.

You've done this collaboration, and the collaboration with Too Faced — do you have the design bug now?

Yeah, actually I do! I love lifestyle and I spend a lot of money on lifestyle, whether it be makeup and clothes, shoes and hair — all of it. I would love to continue in that area.

See the complete Erika Jayne for ShoeDazzle campaign below:

View the 8 images of this gallery on the original article

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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.