The Next Best Amateur Fashion Designer

OK, I'm not sure what happened between Bravo & Project Runway and why it'll be premiering its sixth season on Lifetime, but that's a union that should have never separated. Now, Bravo has replaced Project Runway with The Fashion Show. The Fashion Show is a reality-based TV show with a similar premise, but without the couture & avant-garde designers of Project Runway. Now, I'm not sure what barrel they scrape these "designers" up from or how far they had to dig to reach the bottom, but I'm less than impressed. They are nothing more than amateurs and that's putting it nicely since this is a show in search of the next great fashion designer.

Five weeks in and every episode of this show has either had me side eying my television or ready to throw my Blackberry at it. The first episode, these "designers" created a collection around a must-have item: harem pants (You're side eying your computer, aren't you?). The next couple of episodes, a few of the "designers" had the audacity to complain during the judging. One complained that "this is not America's Next Best Seamstress" when Isaac (as in Mizrahi, a judge on the show) called him out for poor construction of his frock. He LEFT safety pins in it as his model walked down the RUNWAY! (GASP! While clutching the Tiffany) Another "designer" stole detailing designs from his competitors in TWO challenges, but wasn't sent home after being called out for it in the first. But, none of those put the icing on the cake like last week's episode 'Shape Shifters.' For the elimination challenge, these amateurs had to design flattering outfits that disguise problem areas for real women. To their surprise all of their models weren't size zeros, instead they were of various shapes, sizes, and heights. OK, let's pause for the cause, when Isaac announced this elimination challenge I sat there thinking "Wow, what a great idea! This should be good!" Wouldn't you think given all the talk about how clothes aren't made for real women this would be a great challenge for the "designers?" Well, I thought wrong... dammit if those "designers" didn't bitch and complain as to why they weren't use to designing for anyone other than the cookie-cutter sizes of the models they had previously designed outfits for to walk the runway. I was appalled! Like every women in the world is a size 2! We're tall, short, petite, full figured, curvy, thin, etc. Isaac even told one "designer" she had a "sizist attitude." How are they calling themselves "designers" when they can't create wearable clothing for the masses?!

Again I say, I'm not sure WHY Project Runway is now apart of Lifetime Television but Bravo made an obvious mistake in letting it go. And I cannot figure out WHY Bravo chose their mail room clerks, sanitation engineers, and coffee-fetching minions to hurriedly pose as "designers" in the first season of this very generic version of their own Project Runway. It's just baffling...SMH

I cannot tell you how done I am with this show!

In August, I'll be tuned into Project Runway.