Maura Higgins is thrilled to be co-designing her Dancing With the Stars costumes while competing alongside pro Mark Ballas on season 25 of the hit reality competition.
“It’s been such a collaborative process, which I have fallen in love with,” Maura, 35, exclusively told Us in our Top Reality Stars of the Year issue. “You get to help choose the music, which can be so personal, so it helps connect the story of the dance by also being able to contribute to the costumes too. Each week I get to become a whole new character.”
To help create her weekly looks, Maura first sits with the show’s costume team and “talks through what [she’s] envisioning while they sketch away.”
“Then magically a couple of days later my vision is ready for a fitting,” she said, noting she was “really looking forward” to working with the wardrobe department. “It’s honestly such a fun part of the whole process and really gets you in the headspace for show day.”
When it came to her outfits on season 4 of The Traitors, Maura told Us the dramatic fashion featured on the series is why she “decided to go on the show in the first place.”
“When you are dressed well, you perform well,” she explained. “I felt so much more confident in those outfits each week.”
During the show, Maura wore extravagant hats, breast plates, crop tops, long skirts, gloves and more.
“Outside of my wardrobe schedule, I honestly had no idea what was going on in the show day to day!” she added. “Obviously it is a competition but dressing up in those outfits helps you feel like you’re in character and lean into the storyline of it all.”
The Love Island alum was most proud of a green latex look that she wore, “because it really felt like [she] was in the spirit on the show.”
“Only thing is, we had to be in that look for three days and latex is such a hassle to get on and move around in, but it was so worth it,” she added. “I loved that fit.”
Maura also revealed to Us that she wants to raid her “American mom’s” closet, a.k.a. Lisa Rinna, whom she met while filming The Traitors.
“Those couture fits are iconic. I’m just obsessed with that woman!” she said of Lisa, 63.
After Rob Rausch won in the season finale of The Traitors and left Maura shocked (and walking away sans prize money), Lisa went viral for helping him buy an Hermès Birkin bag to make it up to her. Maura told Us that many fans stop her on the street and ask her about the finale, which she was initially “nervous” about.
“I was so nervous that people would think I was a fool, but it has turned into this viral moment and I got a free Birkin so I think I won,” she said, in her infamous Irish accent. “Now my baby Birkin is famous in its own right, she gets stopped on the street, too!”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
