‘Green Dress Lady’ on Her Viral TikTok Fame, Heels in the Club, and Keeping Your Ankles Strong

By: YJ Lee

“What’s going on? What are y'all even doing?”

Rachel Parrish, aka @raechristine__ on TikTok, had no idea she would provoke millions of people when she asked the internet why they don’t wear heels to the club anymore. “Do we need to come out of retirement and teach the girls how to wear heels or what heels we need to shop for when going out in the club?” the 34 year-old sports marketer said. “It’s a rite of passage…We gotta figure out how to bring heel culture back to the clubs.”

The Illinois-native’s original video has garnered 18.2 million views since its posting on July 15, and resulted in thousands of comments, memes, and reaction videos chiming in—some of them hateful. Parrish followed up with a longer video a week later, clarifying that the post was intended to be taken as a lighthearted joke. She tells Complex, “I’m the one in my friend group that goes home first to go to sleep. That’s the funny thing.”

Parrish, who now resides in Chicago after stints in St. Louis and Brooklyn, runs her own sports marketing agency by day before going out at night, if at all. On her downtime, she usually listens to podcasts or plays with her cat and dog, Charlie and George. “I have a routine life, like any normal person in their thirties, which is why when I do have the opportunity to go out and experience things, it’s always fun,” she says.

Complex spoke with the heels-in-the-club advocate on what really happened before and after the viral video, what she hopes to get out of her newfound TikTok fame, and why she would rate her green dress outfit a meager 5.5.

What exactly was the situation when you filmed and uploaded the video?
We had gone out all night, we were in Vegas for the [NBA] Summer League and met up with some friends, went out to the club, and then around 5:30 in the morning we were headed to get breakfast and ran into Kevin Hart’s tour manager. He took us to breakfast, so by the time I was heading home and in the cab and filmed that, it was around 7:30, 8AM. The whole start to finish of filming took maybe 20 minutes. I wasn’t thinking that was prime [time when] everybody else was waking up and going to work. I posted it and went to sleep, and by the time I woke up, it had already hit a million views. The whole day was just me trying to comprehend what was going on.

The reason it led to that whole [heels] discussion was, I was proud of myself because I still had my heels on and we had been out since 11PM. I don’t know what possessed me to pull my phone out and start talking, but I did. I was having a fun and playful chat with a friend, just joking. That’s why I made the throwaway comment about not looking my age because sometimes I find that I’m one of the older people in the group, and I make these jokes. I guess my joke didn’t come across, which is okay. And I said, “Oh, I have to show the shoes. I can’t do this and then not show off the shoes.” So I got to the hotel room and finished the video and went to sleep. Then I realized maybe I shouldn’t have shown the shoes.

Why not?
I’m totally joking about that, but obviously that was the first thing that everybody started mentioning. I will say, I have no regrets. I am on a style journey and I’ve been really conscious about overconsumption when it comes to my closet. This trip just happened to be one that I brought some stuff that I never wear. I was like, “Okay, Rachel, you have to wear it. You have these in your closet, you got to wear it.” I have had those shoes sitting in my closet for over two years. I got them from Bloomingdale’s and they sat in my closet, and I was finally like, “This is the trip, Rachel. This is it.” And boy, was it.

How did you feel once the video started going viral? Did your phone blow up?
It’s funny, I actually don’t have my social media notifications turned on my phone. I learned early on that social media is not a place that needs to be taken seriously all the time. You have to have very healthy boundaries with it. So I tell people that if you’re messaging me on social, unless I’m actively in the app, I’m not going to see it. Which makes it even more funny that when I woke up I didn’t have any notifications exterior to the app. I just happened to log in TikTok and saw a million views and all those comments.

Why do you think people had such a visceral reaction to it?
Well, I think whether the shoes are cute can be debatable, and that’s fine. I always say fashion and art are polarizing and I’m okay with that. In all seriousness though, I think that the main reason is because this is such a divisive year and there are so many different things that people are arguing about. This is a subject that was fun and people were able to unite over [it]. A lot of the [reactions] I saw were funny. It was just a few particular creators who put the video out there with a negative connotation, which invited in some of the hate and negative comments. It was easy for me to tune that out and decipher through that. I never turned off comments on the original post because I’ve given that comment section up to the internet gods.

How many TikTok followers have you gained since?
When this whole thing started, I barely had 3,000 followers. Now I’m at around 31,000. The most exciting thing to me about the followers is that they might come to get a joke or to see the video, but they stay because they like the content. I’ve been working so hard over the last year to really understand how I can translate this career and insight that I have in a way that’s interesting to an audience and also shows people who might want to work in this field that it’s possible to do it, especially if you look like me. Even though this video was random and a one-off, it has actually brought a really good core group of new followers, and I feel very honored about that. I don’t mind how they got there, I’m just happy that they’re there.

You then posted a follow-up video. What compelled you to do that?
I wanted to put my face out there more than anything because I was getting so many messages from people asking how I was doing. We’ve seen the comments. I do have a lot of young eyes, young nieces and nephews that are on the app, and they saw a lot of some not-so-nice things. I wanted to make sure that anybody who felt judged knew that wasn’t my intention. We can all wear what we want in the club. I can wear my block platform heels. Anybody else can wear whatever they want as well.

What was the most horrifying comment or meme that you saw?
I guess overall, the age ones really mortify me. Somebody said, “I’m 51. You look older than me.” And I was like, “Alright, well, okay.” Maybe being called Coretta Scott King, but that was kind of funny to me. She’s a great lady. Some of the stuff that I saw, I just laughed at it.

What was your favorite comment or meme?
Oh my goodness. All the videos on “Stilettos [Pumps].” Please tag me in all of them. They’re so funny. I am cracking up. I love it. Funny enough, I saw Crime Mob perform that last year at the BET Awards. It’s all serendipitous.

It’s almost as if you’ve become symbolic for this kind of clubbing fashion. Have you always been a club girlie?
No. That’s the funny thing. I’m the one in my friend group that goes home first to go to sleep. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very social person. A lot of that is just by way of my career having to be out and about in different events. But in terms of your traditional, “Hey, let’s get on a cute dress, get ready together and go to the club.” That, I don’t do very often, which is probably why I was so surprised [about seeing no heels]. I guess I’m stuck in my millennial ways.

In your video, you called it “the business of clubbing.” Why do you think more and more young people are “not taking it seriously anymore,” and opting for no heels?
I think people shifted a lot of how we dress due to Covid. Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve noticed a lot of people wearing flats and sneakers. Another thing is, it’s regional. Being in Chicago, a lot of dress codes are very strict versus somewhere else [like Vegas] that might have more tourists who aren’t coming from a strict place.

How do you feel about that?
Great. Everybody should wear exactly whatever they want to wear. In all seriousness, I am definitely a big sneaker girlie. I wear pretty much nothing but Nikes in my day-to-day, and the only time you’ll catch me wearing heels is when I’m going out, or if I’m doing a media interview or something.

From a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your green dress and chunky heels outfit?
I’d probably give it 5.5. It’s quite low, and I’m okay with that. Self reflection. I have had cuter outfits. The green dress is cute on its own. Those shoes are good for specific occasions. In hindsight, seeing them together, I could have done better, but the dress still fit amazing. I’ll give myself that. The more I grow and learn about my body, and about how I want to present in the world, the more that I’ve been able to match my outward appearance with how I truly feel inside.

What’s the most casual outfit you’ve ever worn to a club?
I had a two-piece jogger set, kind of a crop top with looser jogger pants. But I still had heels on with it, some high-heeled over-the-knee boots.

How far would you go in heels? What else could you do in them?
Oh girl, I can do it all. I’ve worn heels in the arena. Sometimes elevators are full, so you just got to take the stairs. I’ve learned a lot of different tricks on how to walk in heels and stay in them for a long time. I’ve also learned the types of shoes and heels that work for certain situations.

Would you say there’s something symbolic about heels? What’s your take on what makes heels special?
It’s personal for everyone. For me, I wear heels because I am a shorter person. I’m 5’4” and I work in a very male-dominated industry with a lot of tall individuals. It’s a certain energy that I’m able to carry. [Heels] make me feel a little taller, walk a little taller. For me, bringing an extra flair of femininity into a male-dominated space always makes me feel that much more powerful.

Do you have a secret to how you keep your ankles strong?
You got to walk heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe. When you’re walking up stairs, you walk on the balls of your feet. You don’t have to engage in the heel itself. You just walk on the ball. I do Pilates, and then I usually work out with a personal trainer. Strength training.

How many pairs of shoes do you own?
Probably within the realm of 50 to 60. Heels would probably be 30% of that. Now, my mother easily has 300 to 400 pairs of shoes. She’s in her 60s and she still wears stiletto heels. She saw the video of me going viral, and was like, “Well, I wouldn’t wear those shoes to the clubs.” [Laughs] We all have good fashion days, we all have misses. It’s fine.

How important is club culture in our lives?
I think it’s more the fact of having an outlet, having that space where you can let loose. I remember on TikTok there was this whole talk about how you got to appreciate the club girls because they help you live life uninhibited and free. You should be able to just shed the stresses away. Club culture is very important.

Given how nostalgic Gen Z is of the Y2K era and 90s fashion, do you think heels in the club will make a big comeback?
I don’t really know because the feedback has been down the middle. People love being comfortable, and I’m all for that. But I did also receive several messages of people saying, “I definitely do want to dress up in the club.” I don’t really have a thought one way or another, it can go both ways. Athleisure has become so popular and mainstream. It’s much more widely accepted from when I was going to the club in 2014, 2015. So who can really call it?

I saw that Fenty Beauty commented on your second video. Has any other brand reached out to you? What else do you hope to come out of this experience?
I’ve gotten a couple PR box requests, so that’s cool. One thing that’s been the coolest is the number of people that have reached out to me and asked for advice or get connected with brands in the sports space, whether it’s athletes looking for sponsorships or young aspiring marketers who want jobs. Right now I’m actually looking for a brand to partner with anyone relevant to women’s sports so that I can have some type of formalized career readiness program. That would be my biggest goal or takeaway from this. I'd love to have a more formalized mentorship program or a way to connect with all of these people that have reached out. It’s a great opportunity [to] build up the workforce of tomorrow.

What do you want to tell Complex readers who are considering or contemplating on their personal style?
Wear what makes you feel the best version of yourself. That could change from day to day, but if you feel the best that morning waking up and putting it on, then you’ve got the right thing. Along with that, the only person who can decide what looks good is you.