Julie Chen Looks Back at Her 'Big Brother' Fashions: 'There Have Been Many Mistakes'

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Julie Chen owns her missteps -- especially when it comes to her Big Brother fashion choices. "There have been many mistakes," Chen told ETonline. "We acknowledge that."

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The "we" is Chen and her stylist, Carole Meltzer. "I am very fortunate in that I have a very hardworking, talented woman who has helped me for the last 10 years of my life," Chen said of Meltzer, who puts together her outfits for both Big Brother and The Talk. "It's what I call 'Adult Garanimals.' She says, 'Wear earring number one with dress number two and shoe number five.' And I'm like, 'Tada! Good evening, and welcome to Big Brother.'"

Meltzer was not with Chen for the first five seasons of the show, where she admittedly looked old. "I was trying to look older then," Chen said of her look during the show's first season in 2000. "Because when I got into news, I was you know, in my 20s... and I thought, 'I'll be more credible if I look older.' So, I cut my hair really short. And for some reason I thought thin eyebrows made me look older. Now that was a look."

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Chen actually stands by a lot of her Big Brother looks, saying most of them were in fashion at the time -- including the infamous season 11 finale outfit: a blue Max Mara dress she sweetly dubbed the "Maternity Slanket." It was eviscerated online after the 2009 episode aired.

"This dress has gotten so much bad press!" Chen said. "But I have grown to embrace it because I was 10 days away from delivering a baby. There's a baby under that tent." In fact, Chen still stands by the designer -- she was even wearing one of the label's dresses during our interview! 

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Check out Chen's take on more style missteps in the video above, then see what she's wearing on Big Brother's current season every Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on CBS.