‘Real Housewives’ Breakout Star Brooks Marks is Just Getting Started
The Gallatin senior and fashion designer talks his athleisure brand, family, and, of course, ‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.’
During the pandemic, many of us turned to TV as a source of comfort and much needed alternative to doomscrolling, the news, life, and so on. More specifically, many of us turned to reality TV to keep our Covid-related anxieties at bay, escaping from the general awfulness of our reality by tuning into the more eventful, more dramatic, and (usually) more extravagant lives of our favorite reality TV stars. While the pandemic put the production of many scripted series unexpectedly on-hold for several months, delaying releases and momentarily resulting in a lack of new content, fans of the (superior!) unscripted format were treated with a virtually uninterrupted stream of new series to give us something to look forward to while stuck inside 24/7. Among the most popular of the lockdown-era releases — and my personal favorite — was The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, which continues to dominate the ever-popular Real Housewives franchise, having just finished airing its second season this month.
One of the reasons the show stands out so much is due to the strength of its supporting cast, which consists of the main housewives’ family members. The standout star among them — beloved by casual viewers and dedicated fans alike — was no doubt Meredith Marks’ son, Brooks Marks, a witty Gallatin student who hijacked the spotlight in the series’ first season, which shot at the same time he was conveniently taking a semester off from school to work on his self-titled athleisure brand. He acted as his mother’s plus one at parties, did her makeup, and even participated in the drama the following season, when he combatted homophobic remarks from other Housewives, holding some of the leading ladies accountable in a series that rarely does.
I recently got the opportunity to talk to Marks, who is finishing up his senior year at NYU, while he waited for his mother to meet him for lunch — a lunch that may very well be featured on the show’s third season (it is currently filming, after all.) He started the conversation by apologizing for the background noise, explaining he had “just got off the mountain,” looking very après-ski chic in a puffer coat with windswept hair, sitting in a cavernous restaurant booth.
As I clocked these sartorial choices, I asked him what initially drew him to fashion and design. Brooks is majoring in “Business, Fashion, and Marketing” at Gallatin, after all. “When I was seven, I started modeling commercially,” he explained, citing one of his early fashion influences as a Broadway musical called The Pirate Queen, which he acted in as a child during its Chicago run, his family’s hometown prior to Park City.
“I saw a lot of the creative work with the costume design and whatnot that I was super inspired by, like these crazy dresses with hoops in them,” he said. “It just all started from there I feel like.”
Despite his theater roots, Marks’ current designs lean in a different direction. His clothing line, which debuted in 2019, is athleisure meets minimalism, consisting of a sleek black tracksuit branded with his label, a white banner branded with his name, and a pack of black surgical masks (also branded with his name). He chose to start his line with a simple tracksuit because he wanted it to be inclusive of everyone — “something that everyone would feel comfortable wearing,” he said.
The sizes range from extra small to XXL, and he added that “if someone is having trouble reading the size chart or if someone is expressing that their size isn’t reflected, we will have a custom size made for them or we will accommodate that sizing within our chart,” staying true to his concerns about inclusivity. He told me he wants to move away from a “drop model” for his releases after he graduates because it’s “unfair to people who aren’t able to get it under the drop and what not.”
There seems to be a level of care Marks is taking with his business that may not be immediately clear to casual observors. “My brand has a multitude of areas in which it is sustainable, and I work really hard to make sure all my items are ethically manufactured and stuff like that, which I don’t feel is being communicated.”
Of course, Marks isn’t the only Real Housewives progeny in the fashion space. During the interview, he shouted out the work of model and actor Noelle Robinson, the daughter of former Real Housewives of Atlanta star Cynthia Bailey, as well as Gia Giudice — the eldest daughter of Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice — who has recently released a sweatshirt line. “I’d be happy doing a spinoff with either of them,” Marks said. “They’re both really sweet, driven, successful, smart women.”
Noting his nonchalance while referencing the possibility of a spin-off series, I asked how Salt Lake City has affected his relationships with his family — if at all — to which he responded, “The only way it has changed our family dynamic I think is that it has brought us all closer, which I didn’t think was even humanly possible because we were already extremely close.”
Based on the series, Marks seems especially close with his mother; the two are often seen on the show doing beauty treatments together, talking about their respective brands, or planning parties. He credits their closeness to their mutual interest in fashion (she has her own jewelry line). His mother also has a strong connection to New York, Marks said.
“She’s always in New York. She does a ton of work there and we go to all the same restaurants and stuff. I mean when I first went to NYU, she was showing me the best places in New York and whatever.” He added that his parents “are very present in my social life as well. I’ve actually ran into her [Meredith] out in New York before.” (An experience that could only happen to the child of a real housewife.)
As we wrapped up the interview, I asked Marks if there was anything that we didn’t see on the show that he wanted to share. “If I spoke about what wasn’t on the show, we’d be on this call for so many days,” he retorted. “You can only imagine how much doesn’t air when they’re there filming my mom, like five days a week or something. Basically, there is a lot that people don’t see.”
Still, Marks spoke of his overall experience positively. “Fortunately, it’s been a great experience for me and my brand has taken off from the show and it’s all just like a really surreal.”
After briefly pausing our chat to take a call from his mom, Marks continued to gush about his Real Housewives experience, saying,“It’s all just like a really surreal experience that I am extremely grateful for and so fortunate to have my family in it with me.”
With the third season currently underway, we’ll get to see more of Marks and his family’s “surreal experience” for at least another 18 episodes of reality TV gold — this time, under less . That’s something we can all be grateful for.
