Sometimes you’re working, trying to endure a long week, when you come across a piece of online content that synthesizes your interests and personal values so perfectly that you are given a new lease on life. That was me a couple hours ago, when Architectural Digest posted a video tour of Yolanda Hadid’s Texas ranch house. Hadid, mother to models Gigi and Bella; ex-wife of Katharine McPhee’s current husband, David Foster; onetime cast member of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; OG “almond mom”; and no fan of former boy bander Zayn Malik, is apparently now a resident. As she explains during the best ten minutes I’ve spent in recent memory, she fell in love with Cowtown when her fiancé, Joseph Jingoli, first took her to visit Fort Worth (or, as she so charmingly and Dutchly says it, “Ford Word”). Hadid’s daughter Bella has also recently moved to Texas, to be closer to her cutting horse–champion boyfriend, Adan Banuelos. The Hadids, both lifelong horse girls, have nearly completed their transitions to cowgirls, based on genuine riding skill and—at least, the elder seems to think—the sheer amount of cowboy boots owned and the number of times the word “industrial” is said.
The video tour opens with Yolanda in a felt cowboy hat (before Labor Day, no less), blue jeans, and—I kid you not—actual chaps. The former Housewife then spends ten beautiful minutes showing us around her “industrial, modern, relaxed, enjoying life, put your boots up on the table” home, which is—again, I kid you not—shaped like a horseshoe. There are so many things to love in the video—the chaps, the classic Hadid see-through refrigerators, a poorly utilized pantry. Here are but a few of my favorites.
The Chaps (0:00)
I’m sorry; I can’t get over the chaps. The first thing my editor said when she sent me the video was, “She’s wearing full-on chaps.” As soon as I pressed play, I exclaimed out loud to no one, “Omigod is she wearing chaps,” before sending the link to my sister-in-law with the simple message, “She’s wearing chaps.” One of our design colleagues had simply this to say: “The chaps.”
When She Mentions Doing Her Work on Her iPad (0:58)
Showing off her living room, a dark cavern that Hadid insists is “cozy,” the former model says her favorite way to use the room is to sit in front of the fire while doing work on her iPad. Seems like a work setup perfectly equipped for cuddling up under a massive black and white photo of a horse and ordering more cowboy hats online.
The Pantry (3:24)
With shallow shelving and most items stored in matching glass containers, Hadid has crafted the dream pantry of someone who doesn’t actually utilize their pantry. It also doubles as a “storm room,” although, to quote Texas Monthly designer Kim Thwaits, “The tornado closet full of glass jars seems like . . . a bad idea????”
The Whole Segment on the Back Porch (4:20)
Hadid takes us outside, to the deck overlooking the river about which John Graves wrote a masterpiece. She shows off several details she designed herself, like the half-moon fireplace and the “stone carpet,” for which Hadid has placed designs made with smaller pebbles amid larger tiles. I mostly just love that the camera really spreads out, so you get a full-length view of the chaps.
The Mudless Mudroom (5:18)
This, Hadid informs her audience, is “where the cowboys arrive.” It’s a room for chucking off boots and hanging up jackets, and the shelves are lined with rounded, empty hatstands. All the boots are clean. Hadid says she was inspired to make the room seem industrial and, paradoxically, “stockyard-feeling.” If she’s referencing Fort Worth here, then she’s done a good job of replicating the gift shops, I guess.
The Powder Room (7:22)
Every authentic Texas cowperson has at least one wall dedicated to their model children’s numerous magazine covers.
How Unorganized Her Partner, Joey, Is (9:46)
Hadid says sometimes she’ll come into the shared closet, which she designed with the help of an Italian company, and see that Jingoli has hung his blue shirts next to his purple shirts and his purple shirts next to his green shirts. The horror!
The Final Shot (10:41)
Hadid tells us she has to get back on her horse, and that she’ll “see you later.” It might be a trick of the camera, but when she turns to go back inside, I swear she rolls her eyes.
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