The only thing better than meeting a whole new cast of Real Housewives? When a familiar face is thrown back into the Bravo universe. Tonight, Rachel Zoe—an OG Bravolebrity, thanks to her hit aughts show The Rachel Zoe Project—made her debut on Season 15 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, joining the likes of Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne, Dorit Kemsley, and Jennifer Tilly. And Zoe’s highly-anticipated return to our television screens did not disappoint.

It’s no secret that Zoe is great on camera. Her day job may have been as a Hollywood stylist, but over The Rachel Zoe Project’s five seasons, from 2008 to 2013—the early days of reality TV—Zoe’s eclectic style (filled with vintage designer items) and memorable quips (“ba-na-nas!” “I die!”) cemented her as a true TV star. A dozen years later, she’s as effortlessly charismatic as ever—even if, to hear her tell it, Bravo fans are meeting a very different Rachel Zoe.

“When we started, it felt like no time had passed—meaning, I was totally unaware of the cameras,” Zoe says. “But I was very honest and open in ways that I didn’t think I would be. My life was unraveling in real time.”

Last year, the stylist-turned-business mogul divorced her husband of 26 years, Rodger Berman, with whom she shares two sons, 14-year-old Skyler and 11-year-old Kaius. That context is not in the background of the new season of RHOBH, but right at its center, as Zoe finds her footing as a newly single woman. In the opening episode, Zoe attends a summer solstice party at Richards’s house, where she and Kemsley instantly bond over their recent separations.

“In the first episode, you really see the beginning of how we connect,” says Zoe. “When I was hearing what Dorit was going through, I immediately went into protection mode. I was just like, ‘No, no—you’re going to get up and live your life. You’re going to do you now.’” (Cue them also declaring that they are going to have a “hot girl summer” together.)

Photo: Mark Hanson