British Style Genius

britstyle.jpg

Britstyle

I’m not a ranting kind of person especially not on this blog when there are so many others that rant better than I do.  Instead, I’d rather wait for the positives to come around and then I’ll sing song in a hopeful tone.  If there was one subject however that I could happily rant about all day long, it is fashion on TV.  No, not Fashion TV per se even though that particular channel is for me, mindlessly dull and unfruitful.  I am however referring to British TV programmes that are supposedly to do with fashion and how fashion is treated as either something to throw cliches out to the unassuming public or make people feel bad for constantly getting ‘it’ wrong, ‘it’ being fashion/style and thus giving fashion a bad rep.  "Darling, that jumper has GOT to go..", "Oh my god, what a faux pas!" and "This dress is bang on-trend!" – all that kind of bollocks.

What’s wrong with just a back to basics, straight forward programme that CELEBRATES fashion, not using it as a tool to make people feel inadequate and small about themselves.   Well, I’m apparently in luck as this autumn sees BBC2’s new five-part one hour series called British Style Genius air, which takes a look at what makes British style so individual and influential.  Yes, the patrioticism is slathered on in abundance and the trailer below makes no bones about that.  But at the end of a London Fashion Week where Style.com has heavily heaped on the criticism on the London shows (not deservedly so in some instances…), something like this is a fairly harmless pick-me-up which rings partially true in what it’s saying.  Most importantly, fashion is treated as a decent and proper subject as opposed to a snobbish tool or a complete farce.  It starts airing in October and alas, only Brits allowed (when will BBC sort out an international verison of their iPlayer…?) but I’m looking forward to cosying up for an hour and not feeling like I want to gouge my eyes out and throw them at the telly.       

24 comments

  6. Im glad Im not the only one that’s noticed the particularly harsh criticism LFW has come in for from style.com [and, well, fashion critics in general.]
    Why do the fashion press look down their noses at LFW?
    Anyway, Ive been looking forward to the aforementioned BBC 2 series for a while since I first read the press release. A “serious” TV program about fashion as been long over due.
    there are a couple more clips from the show here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/09_september/15/style.shtml

  7. iplayer isn’t going to be international because people abroad aren’t paying for british tv licences, and you’re not meant to watch iplayer fi you don’t have a tv/tv license (although I know people do).
    I’ll keep an eye out for this prog, thanks!

  9. Gods YES, that kind of fashion programme is part of what gives fashion such a bad name in the first place! Though as for Fashion TV, I don’t mind it as long as they’ve got footage of actual shows and not useless ‘fashion parties’ aboard some random boat/bar.

  10. I get annoyed at the absolutist right vs. wrong rhetoric in fashion too. It’s not about what’s right and wrong for everyone, it’s about what’s right and wrong for yourself. So why make absolutist claims?

  11. Lou: Linked to the press centre already… agree about Style.com…. hey LFW isn’t churning out Alexander Wangs but it ain’t half bad!
    Pretty Face: Ah, on the BBC website, it says it’s developing an international version of their iPlayer….
    Fash Assistant: Elizabeth is my cousin! Hence the lookalikey thing!
    BFH: I especially hate the lingerie shows…
    Lisa: Exactement…

  12. OMG are you serious? I saw her sitting on the front row at the Ashish show, I said to myself ‘Hey that’s Susie Bubble!!’ I’ve photographed her outside the venue for Vogue China mag….I swear you two are like Twins.

  13. OooOOooO… I can record this at work (we get feeds of BBC1 and BBC2 as well as News and World)… will have to check when it will be on air!

  14. Hah! About time, glad that the channels realise some people want to watch intelligent fashion progs. I’ve had meetings with TV production peeps and a year ago it was all, ‘they (BBC, Ch4 etc) don’t want that kind of thing’. Well hello…actually WE do!
    I was just thinking about Elizabeth Lau too. You do both look alike and you’re both Laus…how funny! Loved her dresses.
    I haven’t got a TV licence but I do watch the iplayer. How are they going to get round this? Can they change the law to say that if you have a computer you have to have a TV licence? Surely not?!

  15. hi susie, thanks for writing about this! i’ve always been a huge fan of london fashion week… and anything just slightly anglomania! love it! i don’t know if there’s a way for me to watch this over the internet, but i guess i’ll have to find a way *crossing fingers*.

  16. Thank god! You are not the only one who wants to gauge their eyes out and chuck it at the tv. I eagerly anticipate this show now!

  17. I’ve been waiting for that iPlayer thing for over a year now here in Belgium, the notice has been on there since back then… The time difference sometimes means I miss out on loads of good shows. I’m glad this new show will be running on BBC2 so I’ll at least get a chance to catch it (we only get BBC1 & BBC2 here on regular cable). And in the end, TV licenses or not, there’s always youtube.
    The focussing on negative aspects – up to humilation even – was something I disliked in “What not to Wear” (well it even starts with the title eh), but I suppose the “shock factor” is what makes the show popular with non fashion lovers as well.

  18. gee, a programme that doesnt involve fashion advice? sounds awesome. aren’t fashion shows either ‘what to/what not to wear? i’d really love to see this one.

  19. I’m very much looking forward to this one too! I completely agree it’s frustrating how almost all fashion shows are identi-kit self-improvement type shows, particularly as they really stifle creativity and personal flare, I remember initially thinking What Not To Wear had some good points but then there was an episode where they ripped a woman’s wardrobe and by extension personality to shreds because it was too outrageous. Dare you to try saying that to Vivienne Westwood!

  20. THAT is a choice commercial. I’m no Brit but quite the Anglophile and that screen cap with the blue lambs is hilarious, and best of all These New Puritans’ theme song! You always find the best stuff and look too good for words.

  22. Don’t fry your eyeballs watching some BBC exec’s idea of fashion!!!
    Settle down on the couch and read The Look: Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion.
    Now that’s fashion history.

  24. Good afternoon. Nothing can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.
    I am from Colombia and learning to speak English, give true I wrote the following sentence: “Pet radioactivity supplements have been wound in exposure of the organism, and an approach in the ear of insect.”
    Regards 😉 Sachi.

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