'Survivor' Legend Parvati Shallow on How Clothes Factor into Her Game and Her Athleisure Non-Negotiables

When it comes to reality shows, “Survivor” — the long-running castaway competition hosted by Jeff Probst — might not be one you’d associate with fashion. But participants’ clothes are not only crucial for their survival on the beach, they can also play a role in your game. (See: the whole jacket ordeal between “David vs. Goliath” players Natalie Cole and Angelina Keeley.)

For Parvati Shallow, a four-time “Survivor” contestant and winner of the beloved “Fans vs. Favorite” season in Micronesia, what she wore played into the flirty persona she built up as part of her strategy. 

“I did want to wear clothes that were sexy and functional,” she tells me, after leading a yoga and breathwork class for Athleta in New York City. (Among the crowd: fellow “Survivor” legends Natalie Anderson and Michelle Fitzgerald, against whom Shallow competed on “Winners at War”.) “The functional part definitely took priority for me because I’m thinking, ‘Alright, I’m going to be cold and wet and starving, so what can I control?’ I looked for clothes that would be quicker to dry and look hot, and also, as I started to lose weight really quickly, would still work and not completely fall off my body. I failed most of the time, in every account.”

The “Survivor” production team not only approves all the clothes players bring into the game, but it can also direct them towards specific pieces that fit into their character arc. 

“They were always looking for something sexy for me,” Shallow says. “So I had to walk a tight line with what can I get away with for function, comfort and warmth that also looks like a hot, flirty archetype, which is the part that I was playing.” 

Her wardrobe did evolve the more she played, she admits: “The first time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, so I wore a tank top and shorts, and I was freezing the entire time, pretty much. I was glad that I had a string bikini, so I could keep tying it tighter and tighter as I lost weight… Everything else was a total fail.”

When Shallow returned to “Survivor” for “Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites” — the season she went on to win — she had a different approach. “I needed long pants. I needed a long-sleeve shirt that could double as a dress if I didn’t want to wear the pants or the pants were wet,” she says. “I learned a lot from the first time to the second time.” 

For round three, “Heroes vs. Villains,” “I wanted a quick-dry, long-sleeved shirt because the one that I had used the last time stayed wet for too long,” she continues. “So I was always iterating based on what I learned previously.”

Shallow’s last appearance was in the 40th season, “Winners at War,” and production came to her with a very specific wardrobe prompt: “They wanted me to wear a jumpsuit (in) leopard print. I was like, ‘Where am I going to find that?’ I wanted to wear yoga pants — like, I’m a yoga teacher, please let me wear yoga clothes. They were like, ‘No.'” (She did end up finding a leopard-print jumpsuit from Spell.) 

It may have been a hard pass from “Survivor,” but as a practitioner since she was 17, Shallow says she really, truly lives in her yoga clothes. As such, she’s very specific about what she likes and doesn’t like in her activewear. “I don’t want anything that’s too tight around the belly because of the breathwork that I do,” she says. “I want to be able to make my belly really full, so I need to have something that can really stretch the waist and fits in a comfortable way.”

That’s part of the reason she’s working with Athleta as part of its Power of She campaign. The brand’s leggings, she says, “come up high enough that they cover just above the belly button, and then they’re super soft at the waistband, so I can take the fullest breath that I need to.” 

Shallow’s not much of a shopper, but she’s also not much of a hoarder when it comes to clothes. “I move a lot, and I give stuff away,” she says. ‘Sometimes, I’ll think back and be like, ‘Where did that one dress go? I wish I would’ve kept that one.’ But then I’m like, ‘It’s fine. I can just get a new one.'” (It helps that she mostly wears activewear anyway, and gets a lot of it sent to her as part of her job.)

She suspects her Virgo sun placement has something to do with her straightforward approach to getting dressed: “Virgos are very practical and earthy, and my style is like, ‘I know I’m going to drop my kid off at school and then after I’m going to do a yoga or weightlifting class or hike.’ I’m very active on my days, so I will usually get dressed in yoga clothes first thing, take my kid to school, very practical, do whatever exercise I’m going to do and then come home.” 

You’ll see Shallow next on season two of Peacock’s “The Traitors” — and while she can’t speak about it just yet, she does tease that she once again adopted a character, albeit one very different from who we’ve seen on “Survivor”

“The majority of my looks (on ‘The Traitors’) are Blair Waldorf. I was very serious about playing the Blair Waldorf role of a lifetime, because she has been my inspiration for many years,” she says. “When ‘Gossip Girl’ was a big thing, I was really into it, and I loved Blair. Her style is flawless. She always has the headbands, the perfect skirt or dress. She’s always looking very put together, but also effortless and chic. And she’s kind of a mean girl, but also has a real soft heart.”

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