SHOW ‘EM WHATCHA GOT! Or in the immortal words of EMINEM– You get one shot so don’t miss your chance to blow cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime. Last night I watched The Next Fashion Star.And I kept asking myself over and over what are you guys thinking???It was with some suspicion I watched The Next Fashion Star on NBC last night. I tuned in because I’m a HUGE Project Runway fan and hoped this might be interesting. Talk about life lessons, oh my.Imagine you are an aspiring fashion designer and Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and H&M are all there–in the room holding tens of thousands of dollars to spend– to look at your stuff. Do you show them your best work or do you tease them and make them work just a little too hard for it? I swear it’s the ultimate in arrogance to take the spot light and show anything less than your A game! There were three memorable contestants who really didn’t get the fundamental idea of the WOW factor necessary for capturing the attention of someone you want to get into the game with. You gotta WOW ’em! These people don’t want a tease, they want the goods. One of the contestants sent ONLY neckwear made from the collars and pieces from men’s shirts. The dresses the runway models wore were some other unnamed designer. Really? A neckwear accessory. That’s it, that’s all she sent the buyers with promises– Oh yes, I have so much more, she promised with a breathy growl. But what she showed did not make me even slightly interested in the ‘so much more’. The second one on the chopping block was a colorful sweetly silly prone to crying cherub of a man who’s workroom we saw in B roll. Imaginative, colorful and just deliciously fun work! Did he send deliciously fun onto the runway? NO. He sent pretty things but nothing unconventional and exciting like what we’d seen in his workroom. Luckily the mentors saved him from being eliminated because it looked like he might be the first to be kicked off. But then there was the guy who told the two women mentors and the two women buyers that he doesn’t think women know anything about men’s wear and what’s trending so he wasn’t interested in their opinion. UH WHAT? Buh Bye. Even when he tried repeatedly to correct himself he kept making the same ridiculous point. He’s the one who got kicked off the show first. The point of all this?Your assignment is to show your BEST work to your potential clients. Don’t tease anyone– not unless it’s the Holy Cow of teases. Even the tease should be amazing. Got that? Now, go make art!
