CLOTHED FOR BUSINESS: On Jessica Simpson’s “Fashion Star,” contestants win the chance to have their clothes sold at stores. (Tyler Golden/NBC)
Just when you think the last thing this world needs is yet another competition show, particularly a fashion competition show, along comes “Fashion Star,” and it’s a three-star hit-in-the-making.
The show is hosted by impossibly beautiful model and hugely successful lingerie designer Elle Macpherson, and as judges we have three fashion icons: singer/designer Jessica Simpson (love her shoes!), reality star/fashion designer Nicole Richie and designer John Varvatos.
Each is there to give insightful criticism of each design, all of which are presented in professionally produced mini runway shows.
OK, been there done that, right?
No, not really because into this mix comes a real twist. After the comments are made, three buyers — one from Saks Fifth Avenue, one from Macy’s and one from H&M — bid on the designs for their stores or reject them.
Those designers whose outfits are bid on for the stores (usually in the $50,000 range) are safe for another week, while those without offers risk being given the boot — and not the high-heeled kind.
Absent from this show are the ridiculous clothes that look like they belong on clowns and strippers. In their place are serious, wearable clothes that are, for the most part, so beautiful, so well-tailored and so, yes, sellable, that you’ll want to buy them right up.
And that brings me to part two of what makes this show work so well: All the outfits chosen will be available immediately after the show online and then they will be in the stores the following day.
The final winner will have his or her line in all three chains — and that’s more than can even be said of Simpson, Richie or Varvatos.
What I really appreciate here is that instead of it being merely a dopey competition with the designers rushing to sew up some outfit within an arbitrarily chosen time period using lettuce and toilet paper or some other ridiculous item that’s been forced upon them, these designers work with pattern makers and expert seamstresses and tailors to construct the clothes just as they would appear in stores.
The designers include those specializing in women’s wear, resort wear, men’s wear, outerwear and accessories, and as you look at the clothes, you can also see in which of these stores those designs would work.
Of tonight’s 14 designers (and there’s not a clunker in the bunch), three of the least favorites are called out for possible dismissal.
The judges collectively get one save as do the buyers, leaving one person each week to be sent packing.
I’d tell you more, but, seriously, I need to stay online in order to be there the second the clothes go on sale. Too bad they don’t say how much the chosen clothes will cost, because there are two dresses that everyone is just going to have to have.