What Not to Wear | |
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Genre | Reality |
Based on | What Not to Wear (UK) |
Presented by |
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Starring |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 10 |
No. of episodes | 345 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
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Running time | 42 minutes |
Production company(s) | BBC Worldwide Productions |
Release | |
Original network | TLC |
Picture format |
480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
Original release | January 18, 2003 | – October 18, 2013
External links | |
www |
What Not to Wear was an American makeover reality television series based on the British show of the same name. The show premiered on January 18, 2003, and aired on TLC in the United States. What Not to Wear was hosted by Stacy London and Clinton Kelly.
On March 6, 2013, TLC announced that the tenth season of What Not to Wear would be its last.
Episodes featured participants nominated by friends, co-workers, or relatives. Some episodes involved self-nominations, such as the class reunion specials or mall nominations. In the latter, What Not to Wear set up a 360-degree mirror in various malls across the United States, which allowed women to explain why they needed fashion help. Early episodes featured both men and women; however, as the men's transformations did not prove to be as remarkable, all later episodes featured women exclusively. Some episodes featured both the nominee and the nominator being selected for a makeover.
When a woman was selected, the show secretly followed and videotaped her for two weeks. Sometimes the nominee would be asked to participate in "market research" by a camera crew which was actually the What Not To Wear crew filming her pre-makeover look for the show. Also, the nominators sometimes gained access to the nominee's closet to point out specific items of clothing that they considered particularly bad.
While reviewing the secret footage, Stacy and Clinton would comment, in sometimes caustic style, on why the nominee's wardrobe was unflattering ("mom jeans") or out-dated (purchased in the 1980s) and they would usually meet with the nominators before meeting the nominee. Afterward, the entire group would go to meet the soon-to-be-surprised nominee. During the surprise visit, the nominee was offered a $5,000 Visa debit card (in later seasons, the card was an unbranded $5,000 gift card) for the purpose of buying a new wardrobe if she would turn over her entire existing wardrobe to Stacy and Clinton and shop by their "rules" (shopping guidelines tailored for her age, body shape, and profession). If the nominee accepted the terms of the offer then Stacy and Clinton would give them the gift card and review the secret footage with them. If she declined, nothing further is filmed and there is no show. Nominees were sometimes very reluctant to agree and had to be persuaded by Stacy and Clinton and the nominators.