When Heather first burst onto the reality TV screen she was a loving wife, happy mom and bustling business woman looking to expand Yummie by Heather Thomson, her collection of shapewear and intimates. Three seasons later, Yummie has now spilled over over into active wear (with loungewear coming soon), and she's managed to become a popular voice of reason on RHONY.
Fashion & Style recently had the chance to chat with the reality vet during YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund Roundtable on June 24, and we got to learn even more about the brunette beauty from how she ended up designing women's apparel to her decision to RHONY's season four cast.
Check out our list of the five things we learned about Heather during our exclusive interview below!
5- She's got her first job as a kid: "I got my first job I was 11. I didn't even have working papers, you're supposed to be 13, but my mother owned a restaurant and I would go and serve ice cream cones."
4- She wanted to be a reporter: "I excelled in English and writing, so I decided journalism was probably gonna be a good calling for me. I liked the idea of being an anchor woman, being in front of the camera, out on the street and talking to people, reporting the news, but the funniest part about it was I could not get over what the anchor women wore. I could not have that bouffant hair with the black turtle neck and a hot pink blazer," she joked, adding that it was an elective in textiles and later a job as a sales rep at her local ski shop after college that really sparked her fashion designer dreams.
"I couldn't afford to shop in [Kenmark ski shop] as a child, because they only carry high end goods, and as I got to become their top sales person I said, 'You guys negate your local community here. Locals don't shop here. These are all New Yorkers that I'm selling to. Why don't you do a Kenmark Limited?' I started designing pull-over fleeces for them and I would find myself running home to do more fleece sketches. That's when I realized I wanted to be a fashion designer, but I thought I was going to design ski clothes."
3- Her life isn't exactly well balanced, but that's totally fine: "Right now at 45-years-old with two little kids, 10 and eight, and a husband, running a company, being on the housewives and I do HSN once a month and I do panel discussions on TV -- I'm a pretty busy chick. I guess I'm perfectly happy with my life being completely imbalanced."
2- She started Yummie out of her house: "Yummie came like as a selfish initiative. It was an idea that I came up with as a consumer who was frustrated by my choices in the marketplace. So, I took off my consumer hat and put on my designer hat to make a product. I leaned back on 20 years of design experience and designed a product that I felt was gonna work for me. I was sewing them in my living room. I had like bolts of fabric in my dining room."
1- She was hesitant to join RHONY: "When the phone call came to my desk my first reaction was hell no. Meanwhile, I was sitting right here in the office and I had bills to pay and Maiden Form had knocked me off. I was fighting legal battle. I was looking at my PNL statement and while they're talking about me being on RHONY personally Heather Thomson was like double hockey sticks hell no. Heather Thomson the business woman was like, 'How many viewers did you say you had?' So it was like my marketing brain kicked in over my personal brain, but then when my personal brain caught up it was like, 'Oh my God. I have been given such a huge opportunity.'"