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And there are no insults, catty comments or do's and don'ts. The WE network's Full Frontal Fashion just wants to make designer styles accessible to regular people.
©Associated Press
April 8, 2003
NEW YORK -- The cliquey, insider world of high fashion is embracing a national audience and all its jeans-wearing Joes and Janes.
Full Frontal Fashion, the New York-centric show that formerly aired on local MetroTV, is now a weekly series on cable television's WE: Women's Entertainment.
But do most mall shoppers have an interest in designer duds?
"Our No. 1 mission is to make fashion accessible," says Martin von Ruden, the network's executive vice president and general manager. "We're going to tell you where to find it, how to get the look for less, do makeovers. Secretly, all women have a passion for fashion, whether they admit it or not."
Von Ruden acknowledges, though, that fashion programming for the masses has its challenges. A successful fashion show must blend the spectacle -- think the Oscar red carpet -- with the practical, like how to appropriately wear spring's sorbet colors. It cannot be condescending, he says.
"We're not trying to preach. . . . We don't say you have to wear this or that," he says.
Full Frontal Fashion, with its extensive Fashion Week catwalk coverage and backstage designer interviews, has a core following among the fashion crowd, von Ruden says, and some changes, including adding a self-described outsider as host, should broaden the show's appeal to consumers who are adventurous and willing to try new things.
Von Ruden says that new host Ali Landry, a former Miss USA who hosted the NBC hidden-camera series Spy TV, has a very approachable sense of style that people around the country can appreciate.
"Her enthusiasm and her interest in fashion is genuine but she's not jaded. She's not a 'been-there-done-that girl.' She wasn't part of this world previously. She comes across as one of us," von Ruden says.
Landry, 28, was born and raised in Beaux Bridge, La., and now lives in Los Angeles. Her first real "fashion" experience, the spring 2003 shows, was overwhelming and exciting.
"Growing up in Louisiana, we were always a year or two behind the trends," she says. (She's come a long way: On this day she's in a Roberto Cavalli leather jacket and slim Seven Jeans without back pockets.)
Women in the Midwest and South in particular are intimidated by designer styles because they don't know how to integrate the looks into their everyday wardrobes, says Landry, whose top tip since joining those in the know is to pick out a single element of a designer look, not wear all the trends at once.
Recent additions to her closet include very au courant cargo pants and flowing, feminine dresses in pastels. Landry describes her style as having an element of drama. "I'm not a minimalist, but I'm not over the top," she says.
But even after ordinary folks come to understand that head-to-toe runway ensembles are rarely meant for the sidewalk, they still need to get over the next hurdle: price.
This is another Landry specialty.
"I'm a shopper, but I love a good bargain. I own a few designer pieces, but I wear Target," she says.
And one of her favorite parts of the show is the get-it-for-less segments. "That's where my friend in Levi's can relate," she says.