Dec 19 2008
Guilty Pleasure Friday: WNTW and Say Yes to the Dress
Tonight’s episode of What Not to Wear was another good one. The guest star this week, Catherine, was a sweet girl who was ready for her makeover. Having recently lost 100 pounds (!), Catherine was still stuck in her old body image. Holding out for her “optimum” weight, she was simply hiding in floor-length black skirts and baggy clothes. I think many women who work in a corporate environment have committed the same wardrobe sin as Catherine–long black skirt and knee-high stockings. You know who you are. After all, if the skirt is ankle length, who will know they’re knee-highs?
The best visual stunt of this What Not to Wear was when Clinton knelt down with a pair of scissors and cut one of Catherine’s skirts to knee-length. Incredibly, he cut a nearly perfect line and the original shape of the skirt caused the new hem to mimic a tulip ruffle. The change was startling, and illustrated their point dramatically, as Catherine looked ten times better with just this quick and dirty alteration.
My only critique for the show is something that happens once in awhile on What Not to Wear–the reveal outfits aren’t the best choices. During the shopping day, Stacy and Clinton outfitted Catherine in some great business wear, and the credit montage also showed her in a lot of flattering suits and casual wear. The reveal outfits, however, particularly the first suit, were less than stellar. A pale grey suit with a yellow blouse–and all that showed of the blouse was the long tie at the neck. It was certainly an improvement over the black baggy dowdy suit she’d started the show with, but a later suit in the credits with the tulip skirt would have made a much better reveal outfit. All in all, though, still a satisfying What Not to Wear episode.
For more Friday night guilty pleasure, we get two episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. Tonight’s episodes were more enjoyable than some others I’ve seen, as they covered a wider range of brides. Since the store featured carries designer lines, the typical bride is spending more on their dress than I spent on my entire wedding, and it’s a little hard to identify with the prima donnas. Tonight, however, there were a mix of girls with different backgrounds and also vastly different tastes in gowns. One of the ladies getting fitted had to have a very modest dress to follow her religious traditions, particularly as her father the rabbi would be officiating the wedding. It was actually a revelation, to see how a dress with a high neck, sleeves to the elbow, utterly plain but for some ruffles at the bottom, could actually be very becoming and flattering.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we had different brides trying on the latest fashion in sexy bridal gowns, made with sheer bustiers and yards of ruffles and glitter. I liked this particular designer’s work, as the dresses had lots of detail and some fussiness, without being giant wedding-cake style dresses.
Say Yes to the Dress is a fun show to watch, and shows how subjective wedding dress choices are. Often a bride will put on a dress I think is hideous, only to have her declare it’s her favorite. A bride, who brought her fiance to shop with her, came out in an incredibly flattering dress that he hated. She ended up chosing a much plainer, less attractive style–but that’s just my opinion, of course.
Say Yes to the Dress also shows us all the behind the scenes action, of what the salespeople have to go through, and their methods of trying to match the dress to the woman. Things do not always go as planned. Tonight’s second episode had two girls waiting to try on a sample that another bride was wearing for an hour. The saleswoman feared losing the sale if she got the girl out of the dress, but in the meantime, another girl was sitting in her dressing room in a robe waiting for that dress. The miraculous result was that both girls bought that dress, which was a huge relief to the saleswoman who’d been frantically trying to keep her girl placated while she waited.
Relive all the joys and frustrations of choosing a wedding dress, and fantasize about having a limitless budget as you watch Say Yes to the Dress, on TLC, Friday nights at 10pm Eastern/9pm Central. Before and after, catch the newest episode of What Not to Wear, at 9/8c and again at 11/10c.
PHOTO: Kleinfeld consultant, Keasha Rigsby, helps bride-to-be, Stacey Kaaz, shop for a wedding gown (c2007, Todd Pitt, TLC).
