Cat got sucked into watching (well, TiVoing and then watching) the Fashionista Diaries, the new reality show that premiered on SoapNet last night (August 1). The marketing and advertising for the show had been over the top -- every post on Fashionista yesterday was encased in a FD box -- and Cat admits to succumbing to the hype.
Bad, bad, bad call. This may have been worse than watching The Real World: Denver, and we all know how foul that experience was.
The general premise: Six interns have been hired -- two by Seventh House PR, two by Jane magazine, and two by Flirt Cosmetics -- and they'll be working together all summer, culminating in a joint Charlotte Ronson fashion show at September Fashion Week. Cat had high hopes when one of the opening scenes featured Seventh House head Mandie Erickson dressing down Intern Nicole for wearing flip flops to her first day on the job. Excellent -- and appropriate. But the show just dive bombed from there.
The problem: All the interns – and most of the “mentors” -- are atrocious. Catty dolts. Wow. Princesses. Intern Bridget tried to make Intern Nicole swallow her gum for her, and then complained that Nicole wasn’t being enough of her assistant. Because everyone else, like, has help and an assistant. Bridget: You are the assistant. Shut up and do the job. You’re sending and receiving clothes for Seventh House – not MENSA-level work we’re talking about. And even Erickson was unable to perform an evaluation on one of the interns without using like, totally or umm every three words. Great role model there. (Okay, maybe Cat’s being a bit catty, but you know it’s completely justified if you watched the show.)
The girls are so superior and full of themselves for no apparent reason. They seem to have no professional skills -- unless hair tossing counts -- and they act like they're entitled to everything. Trust fund kids, perhaps? Still, Nicole, the only one who isn't, might be the most annoying one of the bunch. She keeps talking about how she's from Queens and she's as real as it gets and it's just so hard. Shut the fuck up, girlie. You gave up working on your PhD to enter the fashion fray, don't get all teary because it's hard and you're expected to know a few more designers than just Juicy Couture.
Then there's Intern Rachel, who is working for Jane, and it’s like her life dream. She swears she's read it forever and just love, love, loves it! The problem? When she and Intern Andrew are told they're going to be helping out with the annual "Naked" issue, she doesn't seem to have any idea what that might be. Except that people will be naked. Huh. Really? Ya think? That's some seriously close reading.
For one of their first assignments, Rachel and Andrew are sent out to cover a red carpet event and get quotes from stars and celebs. Rachel is more worried about her outfit and wearing proper designer names than she seems to be with her assignment. Cat believes she actually said something to the effect of, we have to interview them? I just never expected that. Listen, in case you missed it, that's what journalists do. We go out and interview people and get the story. Instead, they pretty much giggled their way through the night and talked about how hard it was.
Then, during the intern’s review, one of the Jane editors told Intern Rachel how great it was that she was so aggressive on the red carpet, just pushing to get the quote. Um, no. Maybe that's a good sign why Jane magazine closed -- buh bye, no more -- just weeks before Fashionista Diaries debuted. D'oh!
Bottom line: Cat's worked in fashion in New York, and she wouldn't hire a damned one of those interns to work with her there or in Denver. Cat feels bad for all the real assistants out there having to be humilated by this lot.