Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards says the way her daughter Portia Umansky dresses gets mom “in trouble” at times. When fans blame her for the outfits her youngest daughter wears, she reminds them that 15-year-old Portia is not so little anymore.
When RHOBH began in 2010, Portia was a toddler. If filming started in 2009, Portia would have been around a year old, just a baby. She’s not a baby anymore. She picks her own outfits and wears makeup. She’s a young woman.
Like moms of teenage girls everywhere, Kyle is walking that thin line between controlling everything her daughter wears to allowing her to have some say in her own wardrobe. You’ve got to let them have some autonomy and make their own decisions at some point. It’s a process.
Choosing to pick her battles
During the Umansky family’s recent European vacation, Portia shared a photo of herself in a crop top on her Instagram.
“Oh, people love it when my teenage daughter wears a crop top,” Kyle laughed. “They love to comment about it … I’m just not that uptight about that.”
The mom of four girls added that people always ask her, “‘Why do you dress your daughter like that?’ … Like she’s a toddler. She’s in her second year of high school. I’m not dressing her.”
While she admits that “of course” she wouldn’t allow her 15-year-old daughter to go out wearing something really inappropriate, she’s not overly concerned.
“There have been many times where it’s like [she’s] pushing it, [and] I’m not pleased,” the Halloween actress said. “But sometimes as a parent, you have to pick and choose your arguments.” That’s very true. You can’t fight about everything.
She added that sometimes she’ll question Portia about what she’s wearing, but then later she’ll see all her friends have outfits “way shorter and way more inappropriate.”
“And then I look like the annoying mom, but you still have to make that point,” she said.
Kyle remembered that when she took Portia to Lollapalooza in July, she got comments about how inappropriate her daughter’s outfit was. She warned her daughter at the time that she’d hear about it on social media.
“I was like well … you have to learn the hard way,” the Kyle + Shahida owner said. “But a crop top? I’m sorry. I don’t think that is a big deal. I mean, we wear bathing suits … Like I said, she’s in her second year of high school. She’s going to start driving soon.”
Umanskys clap back
Recently, a commenter on Instagram accused the RHOBH OG of being “another housewife that dresses her underage daughter like a 20-something young lady.”
Kyle responded, “I don’t dress her. She’s in her 2nd year of high school.”
After another commented that Portia’s Lollapalooza outfit was “totally inappropriate” and “sad,” Portia herself replied, “Don’t be sad. I’m happy as a clam!”
Another outfit that landed Kyle in hot water with the fans was a “sexy bodycon dress” that Portia wore in Italy.
“Oh no, not Portia wearing a sexy bodycon,” Kyle joked. “This dress got me in trouble too, guys. This dress got me in trouble.” She added that people were “not pleased” with Instagram stories of Portia dancing while wearing the dress.
“They thought she was at a random club,” Kyle said, before continuing, “We went to dinner in Positano. It’s like a little marina. You get off the boat, and there are little restaurants. There’s no age limit there.”
“I went to bed,” she added. “She went with her dad and her sisters. They were like, ‘This is the first time she gets to do this because it’s legal.’ It’s not a big deal. I think the headline was ‘Gone Wild’ or something.” The Daily Mail actually posted a story with a headline that included “Portia, 15, parties night away in club.” A photo was included of Portia dancing, accompanied by the caption, “Teen gone wild.”
TELL US – DO YOU THINK THE WAY PORTIA DRESSES IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR HER AGE?
