Launch My Line

Have any of you out there seen the new show on Bravo "Launch My Line?" It makes me think that Bravo is desperate to recover the viewers lost to Lifetime when "Project Runway" switched networks. Unfortunately for Bravo, most of us follow the Gunn. Tim Gunn, that is. "The Fashion Show" was stark in its presentation and the designers weren't all that talented. Now they have "Launch My Line" and it just reeks of desperation. The premise is this: professional business men and women ("designers") are paired with fashion industry professionals ("experts") and together they compete to launch a fashion line. The "designers" are choreographers, businessmen & women, fashion writers, critics, etc. They aren't necessarily designers at all. The whole idea just strikes me as a desperate attempt to create a drama-filled reality show that will bring in the ratings. The previews show the "designers" saying things like, "shut-up and sew" to their "experts." Degrading, yes? It seems like the kind of show that will only encourage crazies like the Real Housewives of Atlanta to "launch" their own line. I resent people without any design experience or expertise who call themselves "fashion designers" simply because they've hired a seamstress to sew some clothes for them. These people don't know the smallest thing about sewing or pattern making. They hardly even sketch. They don't know about textiles or garment construction. But they're fashion designers? It's more than a little revolting, if you ask me.

I watched the first episode. One "designer" looked around the workroom about halfway through the challenge and decided that the competition had better pieces. So she made her "expert" scrap ALL her work and completely start over. If Bravo referred to the respective participants as "master" and "indentured servant" it would be less insulting because at least then they'd be calling a spade a spade. Anyone else have an opinion on the new show? For me, I just miss Project Runway that much more.