Fashion Star Week 3 Recap

Week 3! We are into the flow now with the new fashion-based reality show on NBC. Week 1 got everybody introduced to the format. Week 2 got everyone over the inherent Week 1 awkwardness of a new reality TV show (and ratings improved, which is good for certain unnamed bloggers who committed to recapping every episode of the season for a show that starts an hour past their bedtime).

My hope was that Week 3 would feature more character development, which has been a little lacking so far compared to other reality shows.  Most shows keep their most controversial characters on longer than they should to maintain viewer interest.  Not the case here, where the two most controversial and identifiable contestants are bye-bye.  Nicholas (the sexist Australian) left Week 1 after telling the mostly female judges and buyers that he couldn’t respect a woman’s criticism, and Oscar (the flamboyant I want to say midget but can’t because it’s not PC and he’s not really a midget he’s just really short) left Week 2 after creating “hoochie-outfits” for the second straight week.  Without further ado, here are the Josie Girl’s Top 10 takeaways of Week 3 of….

Nicole Richie: OK, so I know I have spent time in the first two recaps praising Elle MacPherson (still amazingly hot, although I didn’t love her dress last night) and Jessica Simpson (seems like a real person and has developed a billion dollar fashion business), so now it’s Nicole Richie’s turn in the spotlight.

Much like Jessica Simpson after The Newlyweds, Nicole Richie didn’t necessarily look like she was off to great things when she was most known as Paris Hilton’s BFF and looked like a spoiled brat on The Simple Life.  But like Simpson, she has really made moves that have done wonders for her reputation (read: sever ties with Paris Hilton).  Her fashion sense is amazing, and I think she is doing a great job on the show.  Also, did you know that Lionel Richie isn’t actually her biological father?  I didn’t. Her Wikipedia page is here.

That’s the theme?:  Through Week 2, Fashion Star didn’t give the designers a theme.  They basically just let them design on their own.  This week, they decided to change things up and went with the theme of… “Summer Trends”.  Is that even a theme?  Yes, it gave the designers a general seasonal direction.  But I guess I am used to reality TV show themes that are a little more challenging.  On Top Chef, they do stuff like: “cook a meal blindfolded with your right hand tied behind your back.” On Project Runway, they do stuff like: “design a dress using only sand and water.”  So I guess I was hoping for something a little more interesting than “Summer Trends.” We will see what happens next week.

Favorite Look 1: OMG! Jumpsuits!!

So, I can’t say I loved Nikki Poulos’ jumpsuits per se, but I love rocking the jumpsuit look. Ken not so much. But I am the one who wears them, not him, so he has to deal. I love dressing Cruz in them too — what’s better than a 2 year old boy matching onesies with his mama? I have too many jumpsuit variations to count — long sleeved, tank, tank shorts, halter….and you can even wear a jumpsuit pregnant. Kinda look like a clown, but that is not stopping me from this awesome summer trend. Nikki’s onesies were not as fashionable as Isabel Marant (who is these days?), but definitely were on trend and fun.

Available at Macy’s!

Complaints: One criticism I have of the show is that there is too much crammed into an hour, and it is a little over produced (I guess that is two complaints).  So I can’t say having LMFAO (Let Me Find an Orange) open up the show with a performance of that song they are famous for was “necessary”.  And did anyone else notice the Cirque de Soleil theatrics during some of the runway walks?  Not exactly how I would have produced the show, but, I guess it was, er, entertaining.

TV Aside 1: After Cruz was born in 2009, Ken and my TV consumption increased a fair amount. One show we could never got into was Mad Men. Can’t say why.. it just never happened.  Considering how much everyone raves about it and how much hype this season’s debut received, I feel like we need to just buy the DVD’s and start from scratch.  Thoughts? For the record, our favorite shows ever are: Friday Night Lights (amazing character development and acting… also love me some Tim Riggins… like, a lot), and The Wire (I hate shows with violence, drugs, and crime, so the fact that I love The Wire, which is based on drug-dealing in the not-so-nice part of Baltimore, means that the show had to be something special… and it was).

#33. Swoon.

NBC:  I hope Fashion Star is a sign of a turn-around at NBC. I grew up in the Seinfeld, Friends, (and going back further) Cosby Show, Cheers era where NBC just always dominated ratings and was clearly the coolest network with the best programming. That time is far gone, and now NBC ranks fourth in overall viewers, closer to Univision and (gasp) CW than CBS, which is first.  C’mon NBC!  Get it together.  You owe it to Norm… and me.

Who?  Oh, that person who has gotten screwed:  Week 1: 14 contestants.  11 got featured.  3 got skimmed over.  Week 2: 13 contestants. 10 got featured.  3 got skimmed over.  You would think that the producers would have prevented any of the contestants from getting skimmed over twice, right?  They didn’t!

Through two weeks, Luciana has totally gotten screwed.  It’s like she hasn’t even been on the show.  So tonight was her big chance to, er, be on a reality TV show….

And she still wasn’t!!! Luciana was once again one of the small group of contestants that didn’t get their looks featured on the runway.  Not sure what she did to anger the producers, but it must have been something. (Wait, does this mean she is going to win?)  Honorable mention to Lisa Vian Hunter who got screwed Week 1 and Week 3.

Favorite Look 2: The anti-Luciana, Orly Shani seems to have had 1/2 the show devoted to her so far. She is a bartender from New York, she’s struggling to get by, and she loves fashion.  This week, we even got to meet her mother and brother. Holla.

I liked her dresses this week. Commercial? Yes. Generic? Yes.  But I liked them and would wear them.  I probably would prefer a hem that is a couple inches shorter, but I still thought the looks were wearable and I liked the color palette.

Available at Saks!

I look forward to next week’s show when we meet Orly’s first grade teacher and see a montage of her childhood pets.

Designers: OK, so accuse me of pre-planning and looking ahead too far, but if I were in charge of Season 2 of Fashion Star, I think I would skew the designs a little more towards “runway” on the commercial/runway scale.  Since the main crux of the show is the fact that looks are available immediately after airing, the fashion obviously has to be much more commercial than Project Runway.  I get it.  But I think the producers may have gone a little too far.  I think the show could benefit from a little more flair.  Like Oscar personality flair (but magnified on clothing, not just crying and drama).

Result: Lizzie Parker is leaving us.

After getting two offers Week 1 and none last week, her dresses this week got no love from the buyers, and she got sent home.  She was down to the Final two with Luciana, who as described above, has gotten zero air time through the first three weeks.  So you kind of felt this was coming.  On the eliminated reality TV contestant spectrum of “totally gracious and appreciative” to “totally rude and inappropriate”, Lizzie scored about as far as you could on the “TG+A” scale.  So kudos, Lizzie, and bon chance.

People.. what did you think of this week?  Did you buy anything?

Anika Yael Natori, aka The Josie Girl.

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7 Comments

  1. I’m sorry but SAKS completely screwed up Orly’s design. A complete and utter disappointment! Saks reworked the style out of that dress. AWFUL!!! Check out the comments of SAKS facebook page. Viewers of the show and shoppers are pissed off!!!! And rightfully so.

  2. Great post! the show is growing on me. but it is a little overproduced. looking forward to your future posts..
    -RR

  3. Show is good. But kind of strange how the final product totally depends on which department store buys it.

  4. I really like Nikki’s jumpsuit. I am picky about jumpsuits in general but this one looks effortless and could be dressed up or down. Love it, bought!

  5. Completely agree with you JG… it needs some Project Runway glamour. Commercial looks get boring after a while and all fashion shows could use some avant-garde!

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