Early on a Monday evening during New York Fashion Week, Jessel Taank breezed into the Sabyasachi boutique in the West Village, passing a life-size elephant sculpture near the sidewalk. But the “Real Housewives of New York City” star couldn’t quite say what it was doing there.
“Good question,” she said with a laugh. “There’s apparently a great elephant migration that I wasn’t aware happens this time of year, and Sabyasachi is celebrating that tonight.”
In fact, The Great Elephant Migration is a touring art installation featuring a herd of 100 faux pachyderms, handcrafted in Tamil Nadu from a dried invasive shrub. (Actual Indian elephant migration in India happens year-round.)
Such obliviousness to details seems on brand for Ms. Taank, 41. After all, who could forget when she called TriBeCa “up and coming” on the last season of the “Real Housewives of New York City”?
But when she commits these faux pas, she does so with a disarming smile, one that has won over prickly fans. By the end of the show’s 14th season — and the first of the cast reboot — it was clear that she had received the villain edit, criticized for what came off as willful ignorance and bratty behavior. But she had also found a fan base so ardent that, according to Rolling Stone, its members call themselves “Taank Tops.”
Her second season premieres on Oct. 1 (giving East Coast viewers the choice between watching the show or the vice-presidential debate).
That Monday evening Ms. Taank was accompanied by her husband, Pavit Randhawa, who joined her for the party hosted by Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the Indian couturier and a sponsor of the art installation. “I’m here for the food,” Mr. Randhawa, 44, explained.
As Ms. Taank, a fashion publicist and founder of Oushq, an e-commerce platform bringing emerging Indian designers stateside, paused every few steps to distribute air kisses and exchange peals of laughter, Mr. Randhawa, a tech start-up strategist and “Real Housewives” fan favorite, kept an eye trained on the servers swirling past with chicken samosas and bite-size fish tacos.
“He’s, like, having dinner,” Ms. Taank said drolly. Such jabs have become part of their brand as a couple. Passing one appetizer station, the couple paused to do caviar bumps.
“Ah, there’s Mr. Mukherjee!” Ms. Taank swanned over to say hello to the designer, her black and gold Zimmerman gown billowing in her wake.
“Oh, is that the main guy?” Mr. Randhawa asked someone nearby.
On “Real Housewives,” Ms. Taank’s background and marriage became fodder for on-camera speculation. On the first season, the other housewives regularly gossip that she was not forthcoming enough with her personal history, but it’s relatively straightforward: Her parents grew up in Kenya with roots in Gujarat, India; during volatility in East Africa in the 1960s and ’70s, they immigrated to London, where Ms. Taank and her brother, Bobby, a music producer, were born. Her father was an accountant, and her mother worked in child care and retail.
In 2006, after graduating from King’s College London, she joined her uncles Nitin Vadukul and Max Vadukul (whose son, Alex Vadukul, is a reporter for The New York Times’s Styles section), both well-known photographers, in New York. Her own career in fashion public relations has included stints working for Celine and Victoria Beckham and in-house at Michael Kors.
Finding her way to the back of the boutique, Ms. Taank ran into Mickey Boardman, the former editorial director of Paper Magazine, who had made a cameo on the show last season during a party at her home. “Have you met Mickey?” she asked her husband.
“Yeah, he was at our house,” Mr. Randhawa answered. The two men had been discussing Mr. Randhawa’s unconventional method of remembering which glass was his at that gathering.
He clarified: “You go to this kind of thing, and everyone’s drinking champagne, and you’re like ‘Which one’s my champagne?’ No one’s going to put a carrot in their champagne, right?”
Ms. Taank rolled her eyes. “This was a cocktail party with a lot of high-profile fashion editors, and he’s walking around with a bloody carrot in his champagne.”
“I never lost my drink that night,” Mr. Randhawa retorted.
The couple met in New York, and they were friends and then roommates before they started dating. Ms. Taank asked him out in 2012, she said, and soon after, “I think I proposed to him.”
They had been dating for a year when, in 2013, Michael Kors’s human resources asked if she had a plan for after her visa expired in three months. “Oh, yes, I’m getting married,” she remembered replying, before calling Mr. Randhawa, who grew up in Los Angeles, to inform him of this development.
They soon eloped at City Hall in Manhattan — after which she went back to work while he went out day drinking with his friend who had served as witness — and a much grander celebration in Mexico, covered by Vogue, followed in 2014.
Ms. Taank had somehow managed to avoid seeing a single episode of any “Real Housewives” franchise, she said, before joining the cast. “I knew I’d make good TV because I’m a lunatic, and so is Pavit.”
That other “lunatic” pulled out his phone to summon an Uber home to their twins, Kai and Rio. “What’s this place called?” he asked. Ms. Taank looked at him in disbelief, before yanking at an embroidered jacket nearby: “It’s on every hanger in the store.”
Ms. Taank still styles herself. That evening, she paired her caftan-like gown with a petite Yves Saint Laurent bag; gold Alexis Bittar earrings; and simple Gianvito Rossi stilettos. She left Mr. Randhawa to his own devices, giving him the guidance that Sabyasachi was “the Chanel of India.”
“He was like, ‘That’s a lot of pressure,’” she said. “So he comes out, does a twirl, and was like, ‘What do you think Sabyasachi would say if he knew I was wearing Zara and H&M?’”
After Mr. Randhawa went home, Ms. Taank headed to a bar at the Warren Street Hotel in, yes, TriBeCa — “Look at it, it’s so up and coming, it’s so buzzing!” she quipped — for a quiet moment before her next event.
Though she’d started her own P.R. consultancy while filming the show’s first season, during fashion week she often finds herself to be of interest as much as her clients. “All of a sudden you’re talent and not a publicist,” she said.
While waiting for the spicy margarita she had ordered, she hopped behind the bar to help the bartender, a man named Anthony Baker, with the other bar tabs to speed things along.
Soon she was free-pouring a batched tequila mixture for a Daisy Clementine, the bar’s signature drink. “Whoa!” Mr. Baker stopped her. “We have to measure it out!”
“Oh, was that alcohol?” she asked innocently.
Ms. Taank grabbed a pair of tweezers and gently crowned the glass with a slice of orange before passing it on. “Tell them Jessel Taank of ‘Real Housewives’ made their drink!”
A few minutes later, spicy margarita in hand, she settled into a colorful couch to discuss the forthcoming season. “It is definitely the best type of mirror, because I noticed my tone is a little bit abrasive,” she said. “When I look at Pavit and what he does for us, I really do take for granted having a husband that’s so supportive. On the show you see me being kind of dismissive to him sometimes, but I really have focused on making sure that I prioritize our relationship.”
After all the hate she received at first, was she nervous about coming back for more?
Not in the least, she said. “I’m not a one-hit wonder.”
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