We’re nearly 15 minutes into our conversation at Starbucks when I work up the nerve to ask the Rev. Emily Bloemker about the elephant in the room: Is it OK to be sexy and a priest? “If you could sum up the show, that would be it,” laughs the 27-year-old St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church associate rector, who appeared on the TLC show What Not to Wear in February. “At first, I wasn’t so sure,” she recalls. Then the show’s co-hosts, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, performed a miraculous makeover.
Who nominated you for the show?
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On the day of my ordination, I was walking out the door in a pair of pants that I wear all the time, and my sister was like, “Man, those pants are frumpy.” I was like, “I’m leaving to go be ordained! You should nominate me for What Not to Wear.” So she did.
When the producers surprised you, asking you to be on the show, did you have any reservations?
I showed up at a ONE Campaign event to give a speech about poverty in Sudan, and [the What Not to Wear producers] offered me all this money. It was like, “How do you justify spending $5,000 [on a wardrobe] when you know exactly what that money could do in a place where people have no money?” I ended up donating $500 of my own money to charity.
Before the show created a custom collar for you and offered some style pointers, You faced certain…wardrobe restrictions.
I was very self-conscious about attracting attention to myself or to my body when I became a priest, so I began dressing in clothes that made it a nonissue: gray pants, black shirts, black clunky shoes, no makeup, a ponytail… My main concern now is, “Does this [outfit] balance my own desire for color and style without being too flashy or tight-fitting?”
Were there any uncomfortable moments on the show?
There was one part where they turned me around in the 360-degree mirror, and Clinton was like, “I can’t believe I’m saying this to a priest, but your ass looks terrible in those jeans.” That was the closest I ever got to anything uncomfortable. But he was right.
How did the congregation react afterward?
I think there was this period of two weeks where everyone felt like they had to compliment me… They just needed to see that I was the same person, the same priest.
Anything else you’d add?
Probably the only thing you haven’t asked about is my dating life.
I wasn’t sure if that was off-limits.
Before, I remember wearing my man’s clergy shirt and my collar, and I was in the Whole Foods beer aisle after a Sunday service and this guy turns around to me and says, “Oh, are we playing priest today?”… It’s an ongoing process of overcoming stereotypes.
