Reality Television | USA Fashions

Taking Fashion Cues from Reality TV

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With the wide array of reality TV shows exposing you to which fabrics, cuts, fits and colors to avoid, staying fashionable is as simple as turning on your television. Luckily, you don’t have to be scrutinized as your every fashion choice is critiqued. Others who allow themselves to be highlighted as the guinea pigs on reality TV fashion shows give you an opportunity to sit back and learn from their mistakes.

The Fashion Choices of the Unsuspecting

Oprah hosted many episodes related to fashion choices. Unsuspecting women were approached in the malls and on the streets and asked if they could be advised on their fashion choices. Ill fitting bra straps that dug into the breasts, old jeans and outdated fashions were just a few of fashion mistakes made by women who were rushing through their lives without time to heed their clothing choices.

A Fashion Self-Assessment

As you watch reality television, you can ask yourself these same questions in the privacy and comfort of your own home. Do your undergarments fit properly? Are there visible panty lines or bra strap lines? Do your jeans fit properly? Are your jeans a current cut or from decades ago? While you may not choose to buy a pair of skinny jeans as an older woman, you might choose to avoid jean cuts that are pulled too high up on your waist as was the fashion decades ago.

Whether you are watching The Bachelorette, What Not to Wear or another reality TV show, pay close attention to the fashion mistakes and triumphs of show participants to carve your own fashion path.

Filed Under: Fashion, General Tagged With: Fashion, Jeans, Reality television

Popular Fashion Themed Reality TV Shows

There’s a reality TV show for everything. There’s show for cooking, weddings, losing weight and even how to use coupons. However, despite the popular nature of reality TV shows the most popular theme for reality TV is fashion. There are over a half dozen fashion reality TV shows on the air on any given day.

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Here is a look at some of the most popular fashion themed reality TV shows.

America’s Next Top Model

While not directly related to fashion, America’s Next Top Model follows 15 to 20 wannabe models on their journey to become a runway model. The show will often take beginner models in turn them into high-end fashion models by the end of the show. Not only does it show the models but many of the top name designers and fashion labels are also featured on this reality TV show.

Fashion Runway

Fashion Runway follows dozens of wannabe fashion designers. Every week they are given a challenge and made to create an outfit that meets the guidelines for their model. The winner of this reality TV show is given a fashion design contract and many well-known fashion designers have come from this show.

What Not to Wear

What Not To Wear takes an ordinary individual who has terrible fashion sense and treats them to a fashion surprise. They are given fashion advice, have their existing wardrobe trashed and given $5,000 to shop in New York City. By the end of the show this individual is sporting the latest fashion that looks great on them and had their life completely transformed because of the show.

Filed Under: Designers, US Fashions Tagged With: Fashion, New York City, Reality television

Reality TV – Spin Offs From Prime Time Shows

Reality television shows have taken the world by storm over the last few years, and they are just gaining momentum and popularity as time goes on. There are so many different types of reality tv shows today that it can be difficult to say what the most popular or best out there today.

It seems like every time there is something new going on in the world, television producers are making a new reality television show about it. Every time a regular tv show becomes extremely popular, there has to be a reality spin off of it. Take Desperate Housewives, for example. This show became very popular, partially because of the catty behavior of the women, and the crazy situations that their relationships put them in. After the initial popularity of the show, we started to see a new phenomena. The Real Housewives series. Each new season has a new city in the spotlight, with new women showing off their lifestyles. These are always higher class, women who, realistically, have more money than most of us could ever dream of. Many of them are not even housewives! This show has gained so much popularity that there is no end in sight.

The spin off of reality television after the popularity of a show does not stop here. Oxygen has recently announced that it will be having a reality show, similar to American Idol, for those that consider themselves “Gleeks”. This comes from the popularity of the show Glee. The winner of this new reality show will, supposedly, then win themselves a spot on the show itself. This is just the newest way to spin a popular show into a reality tv show. Though this may actually get more people watching the original show, it may also make the show much less popular, because the reality tv version becomes “more interesting” to people.

Filed Under: International Fashions Tagged With: American Idol, Real Housewives, Reality television

Fashion Models Over 35 — She’s Got the Look

In the fashion industry being over the age of 35 usually means you are retired. However, there is a relatively new reality television show featuring women over the age of 35 who are competing to become the next supermodel 35 or older. This show’s title is She’s Got the Look, and originally aired in 2008 on TV Land network. This show has already run three successful seasons and is scheduled to run a fourth season in 2011.

Throughout the season celebrity judges narrow down the cast from an original 20 until they find the one with just the right look. After the initial interviews of the 20 semi-finalists, which included displaying the contestant’s fashion knowledge and presenting oneself well, the cast is narrowed down to a final ten contestants.

Once the final ten contestants are chosen they then live in a loft together and compete in challenges. These challenges include tests of their fashion sense, photo shoots, and runway competitions. Contestants are then eliminated as time goes on. The final episode leaves two contestants remaining. In the end, one woman is the winner and goes on to become the next supermodel 35 or older.

Some of the past winners have included average women from average lives. The things that set them apart are their beauty and confidence. The first winner in 2008 was 45-year-old married mother of five from Orange County, California. During the second season the winner was 39-year-old Cindy Cohen. Cindy lives in Calabasas, California. With her son heading off to college she decided to give modeling a try and auditioned for the show, and the rest is history! The 2010 third season winner was a 38-year-old bus mechanic and married mother of two from Los Angeles, Marlin Archie.

The winners earn a modeling contract, $100,000, and a photo spread in Self magazine. The goal of this show is to prove that women over 35 are still confident, beautiful, and definitely model material!

Filed Under: Fashion, International Fashions Tagged With: Fashion, Los Angeles, Reality television

Fashion-Themed Reality Television

Reality television has become a rage over the past few decades. It continues to be strong today. The fashion industry is no exception. There are many reality television shows featuring one aspect or another of the fashion industry. Some have stuck around for many, many years, while others have only managed a year or two. Some of the most popular reality television shows include fashion-based shows.

Project Runway, which is a show where designers meet several challenges throughout the season to design clothing. The show usually starts with 12 would-be designers who compete for the top design. As they participate in the challenges each week, one designer is eliminated until only three designers remain for the final runway show. This show has had eight successful seasons thus far.

America’s Next Top Model, is as you guessed it, a show featuring contestants hoping to become the next top model. This show was created and hosted by supermodel, Tyra Banks. In the first episode of each season the show begins with ten to fourteen aspiring models. Each contestant has to meet challenges along the way or be eliminated. The challenges each wanna-be model faces deals with some aspect of modeling. The models then go out on photo shoots, with the resulting photos determining who will be eliminated and who will go on.

A relatively new reality show, The Fashion Show, which airs on the Bravo network, features designers who compete against each other to create designs with limited materials and limited time. The designs are judged each week and one or more designers are eliminated. In this show, America is the judge and participates in the elimination of designers. The winner receives $125,000 and a chance for their fashion designs to be sold retail.

This is just a small sampling of the reality television shows featuring fashion. If fashion design or modeling interests you, you might find fashion-based reality television fascinating. Each of these shows offer insights and fashion tips that the general public can use as well.

Filed Under: International Fashions, Trends Tagged With: Fashion design, Project Runway, Reality television, Tyra Banks

Fashion in Reality TV — Project Runway

The popular reality television show, Project Runway, just completed its eighth season. This American fashion reality show features 12 or more designers who have to create one or more pieces of clothing that are presented at a final runway show. The designers are presented with many different challenges throughout the run of the show and are eliminated leaving only three designers for the final challenge.

Some of the challenges designers on the show have faced through the seasons have included making designs using non-traditional items. Some of these have included recycled materials, apartment furnishings, grocery store items, edible food items, the clothing that they are currently wearing, plants and flowers, using materials from a party store. They have also been challenged to design for famous people or design a corporate fashion line. Another challenge that designers have faced was to design clothing around a theme such as “cocktail party,” “wedding gown,” “female wrestling outfit,” or “prom dress.”

During these challenges the designers are given a budget which they are to use to choose materials and accessories. They are then given a time limit in which they must complete their designs. Most of the time the designers work alone; although, some challenges require them to work in teams or work as a group. After the deadline is reached the designers have to choose their model’s hair, makeup and accessories and dress them in their design. The models then walk down the runway and the outfits are judged by a panel of judges. At this point the loser of each challenge is then eliminated from the show.

In the end the winner of the final challenge is chosen by the judges and is given $100,000 to start their own design line, are featured in Elle magazine, and have won other prizes throughout the many seasons as well. Winners are also given a chance to sell their designs on bluefly.com.

Filed Under: Designers, Trends Tagged With: Arts, Fashion, Project Runway, Reality television, United States