I've been out all morning and just got caught up with this conversation--very interesting!
I totally agree that What Not to Wear follows the same old formula, and so I've sort of gone off on watching it, because I know exactly how it's going to turn out at the end--dark denim or black trousers, fitted blazer, some sort of "embellished" cami, pointy toed shoes. Not a bad look, but not that interesting either. I agree with all of your opinions that this is because they are sort of starting from square one and don't want to overwhelm the participants. But they do get rid of any sort of uniqueness or personality the person might have, and I'd be MUCH more interested if they could assess the person's personality (rather than do a psychological evaluation of why they are dressing the way they do) and work some of those elements into the style. I mean, they'll take someone who is OBVIOUSLY a crunchy granola boho earth mother type, and put them in a suit, or dress them modern classic, even if they have no work restrictions on their wardrobe. Then they ask, "Do you like this?" and most of the time the women say yes because really, at that point almost ANYTHING would look 20 times better than what they were wearing. And I agree with Maya--a swiss dot tie shirt and a denim pencil skirt is not funky. Add an animal print belt and some brightly colored shoes and now we're starting to get somewhere, but you never really see that.
As far as the hosts being rude--it does make the show more interesting and this is probably why they do it. But I've seen Stacy appear on multiple shows in multiple situations, and I think she's just the sort of person who speaks her mind in a very "in your face" sort of way. Clinton seems like he doesn't naturally do this as much. I like their chemistry because they balance eachother out.
Re: Trinny and Susannah--I've never been to England personally, but I have been around some British people (I'm married to one). I think in British culture, it's more acceptable to be very blunt and (what we in the US would consider) rather insulting. I've watched British parliament on television, and they say things to each other that would cause fist fights in our Congress. But in the British parliament, everyone laughs, it's no big deal. It's almost like a form of bonding or something. They are also very sarcastic, which is not really a form of humor that is "appreciated" as much over here. My husband had a rather rough time when he first moved here because he'd try this with people here and of course, we were offended. I had to explain to him that it's not the same as it is in England and to tone it down. He's gotten a lot better, thankfully, but every once in a while he'll say something and I have to explain to people that he's just joking, which depresses him because in England he sort of prided himself on the fact that he always made people laugh and here in the US, he's fallen flat on more than one occasion. Poor guy.
