Fashion Star

Saw the first two episodes of Fashion Star, with Elle Macpherson serving as host, and with Jessica Simpson, John Varvatos and Nicole Richie as mentors to the designers. You know it's produced by the same team behind Top Chef because while Elle Macpherson is a natural choice to host, she also still has her Australian accent. I don't think it's fair for this show to be compared to Project Runway because fashion on Project Runway is supposed to be more avant garde, and not necessarily more commercial and accessible to the average Jane in a department store.

In theory, it sounds like a viable concept. It's just that...

• The music used for the runway segments was too loud, commercial (mostly recognisable Top 40 hits), and a bit distracting from the outfits on display. 
• The buyers from Saks, Macy's and H&M are (allegedly) not actual buyers. I wonder what their respective budgets are (if any) per episode.
• Tiny Oscar is annoying, to say the least. Glad he didn't make it. And, I know I've seen the dresses that he's sent down before somewhere else. 
• I thought that Elle and the contestants would be standing on a lazy Susan so that they don't have to actually turn around when it came time to face the buyers. I guess they don't have the budget after splashing out money on the music...

The show must have been shot earlier in Jessica Simpson's pregnancy as she still looks (Jessica Simpson) svelte. That, and there's no way they could expedite the winning designs to the stores if it was done in real time.

I'm okay with having multiple designers showing their designs simultaneously at this stage of the game - it's only a few pieces each.

As much as sadistic me enjoys seeing "NO OFFER" flash across the buyer's big screens for some of the puzzling designs down the runway, but a bidding war is fun to watch too.

I did check out the winning designs online... they look nice, but the cheapskate in me is not about to spend 3 digits. It's just how it is. And some of the designs are already sold out! Who's buying these and how many  pieces were made available?

All that aside, it won't stop me from watching this journey unfold.