Ali Wong loves to sparkle.
The comedian, 37, famously wore a $8 striped dress from H&M for her viral “Baby Cobra” Netflix stand-up special, and has since completely renovated her wardrobe.
In an essay for InStyle, Wong chronicled her boyish sense of style, starting with her early comedy days in San Francisco, when she was sponsored by a local skate company (“I wanted people to take me seriously as a comedian and not see me as a sexual thing,” she wrote).
She said she switched from oversized pants with tiny crop tops and double buns to body-hugging dresses mostly out of necessity; she could not use the restroom while pregnant with her first child in 2015, and she wanted to show off her baby bump.
However, after giving birth to her eldest daughter Mari, now 4, Wong said she became drawn to things that give her “the energy to handle the broken water heater.”
“Of all the fashion phases I’ve gone through, perhaps none has been more dramatic than when I became a mom. It was like all of a sudden, I didn’t want to wear anything that was just meh. I wanted to put on something that would make me feel alive even when I hadn’t showered for days,” Wong told InStyle.
“So I turned to sequins and shiny leopard prints and shimmery gold pants because I needed that extra little sparkle in my life. Now, even my eyeshadow must have shimmer. My bronzer must have shine. I want to be a disco ball.”
Wong’s striped dress sparked many Halloween costumes, and the Smithsonian even asked the comedian if they could hang it amongst Fonzie’s leather jacket and Dorothy’s ruby slippers.