The Must-Watch Show For Runway Fanatics Is…So You Think You Can Dance?!

It’s a week before Fox unveils the seventh season of So You Think You Can Dance, and the show’s hostess is on the phone with a confession. “The first dress I bought where I thought I had gone completely mad was an Alexander McQueen,” Cat Deeley tells Style.com. “It was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen, like I had gone up to my grandmother’s attic and opened a trunk and pulled out this treasure of millions of layers of white tulle. It looked like a fairy-tale rock princess’s dress. I spent a fortune on it. But it’s so over the top that I’ve never, you know, actually worn it.”

Huh? This from the hostess of a weekly Fox dance-off?

But Deeley’s enviable wardrobe is reason enough for fashion-minded viewers to tune in, however they feel about splits and pliés. She’s quietly brought Balenciaga, Christian Dior, YSL, and Givenchy to prime time. “I like to have fun with what I wear on the show,” Deeley says. “People either love it or hate it, but they always have strong opinions about it. And, for me, that’s what fashion should be about.”

Even with more designers—especially countrymen like Burberry’s Christopher Bailey, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Alice Temperley, and Giles Deacon—making their collections available to her, Deeley says she still picks up many of her ensembles at vintage stores on the road during auditions. (She’s also got a strong feeling for French designers like Roland Mouret, Isabel Marant, and Lanvin.) So, what’s on deck for next Thursday? “I never know what I am going to actually wear until the morning of the show,” she explains. “I go into the studio and see how I’m feeling—ballsy or not? Then I pick the outfit and turn to my makeup team with detailed scenarios—like, think Talitha Getty in Morocco or Jerry Hall meeting Andy Warhol. That’s how we do it. I’ve definitely put some crazy things together in my time.” So why not wear the McQueen dress after all? “It’s so over the top that everyone would literally turn around and say I’ve gone clinically insane,” she laughs. “Maybe instead I will just get it framed.”