F-Rated: What Not to Wear has Flair

Shows

So you can’t tell Ugg-y from fugly and your closet’s a secret tunnel way to 1972 – don’t worry, Stacy and Clinton are on it.

For those of us who suffer from chronic fashionitis, the gabbering, brutally honest stars of TLC’s What Not to Wear put the snark back in primetime, while cleaning up our leopard-print pasts.

Ironically enough, on the night most audiences were watching large men hopping around in multi-coloured leotards, some closet-conscious viewers were picking up tard-trashing pointers on TLC’s WNTW marathon.

Now, Stacy and Clinton are no newbies to primetime – but in this age of TV makeover madness, they are a good as it gets.

It’s weird how S&C always incite the same kind of anticipation – every week you think they’ve met their anti-fashion match, that they’re pushy rules and snarky comments will fall short of pretty-ing up the fashion-crossed soul that’s passed their way, but every week they end up saving the day.

Why is that? The hair cut, and make-up snazz up that comes in the last 30 minutes isn’t anything different than any other make-me-more show dishes out – even the free shopping spree isn’t uncommon on today’s TV makeover fair. So what makes S&C shine? It’s a combination of the chemistry between the two, they’re aspiring attire students, and a dollop of fashion psychology.

You see, S&C’s snark isn’t the only thing that pries out the fashion patient’s insecurities – it’s the clothes. Watching the marathon this weekend, it was remarkable how many people lunged at the famous garbage bin of clothing doom, trying to recover years of attire they had grown attached to. One overzealous woman claimed she’d lost a part of herself as she watched her provocative wardrobe being canned. In her over-the-top rantings she hit the secret of WNTW’s success in a nutshell.

The show may emphasize a refresh of te exterior, but the way it goes about it’s transformation is from the inside. And we’re not talking in a Dr. Phil way. What’s universal about clothing is that it adorns and defines as much as society says it shouldn’t. And in this superficial, looks-first world, isn’t it just oddly appropriate that Stacy and Clinton’s lessons of life feign using the outside to refresh the inside? It grabs all of us superficial TV viewers literally looking for a change in people, while wowing us every week when very image-conscious fashion floppers come out with a rejuvenated ‘outfit’ on life. They’re clothes become only a minute part of their revamped, confident attitudes.

For their miracle work, and that ooey-gooey good feeling we get inside when we know we look hawt – Stacy and Clinton get a F-Rate for pure Flair.

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