New Fashion Reality Show: Launch My Line

Dys wrote about some fashion reality show a while back and the TV shows she wrote about eventually made their way to our television screens, such as The Rachel Zoe Project and Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, which both were shown on Sony Entertainment Television (SET). I also caught a few episodes of Stylista on Star World and even though I thought it was mostly about the catty behaviors of the contestants, I was still having a hard time changing the channel once I tuned in 😀

If you can’t get enough of fashion reality show, there will be another one coming up today! It’s called Launch My Line and it features 10 established fashion designers paired with 10 industry professionals, who are highly regarded in their own field of expertise, but have always dreamed of having their own clothing line. From stylists, music producers, event planners to CEOs and choreographers, the innovators will work with the established designers to bring their vision to life and create a fashion line. In the end, one team will be declared the winner and someone’s clothing line will be launched.

Twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten, or more known as Dean & Dan, the duo behind DSquared2, will host the show while fashion notables Stefani Greenfield, founder and creative director of hip specialty boutique, SCOOP and Lisa Kline, celebrity designer who owns a clothing line using her name, will be the judges.

If you’re wondering if it’s anything like Project Runway, it’s similar but there are still significant differences. For example, if all participants of Project Runway are designers, the ones in Launch My Line aren’t. They come from various backgrounds, such as music, business, architecture, etc and while all of them share a common vision to launch their own clothing line, most of them can’t design clothes. One of the contestant even said in the first episode “I can’t even sew a button!” 😀 And I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how they will face the fashion-related tasks given to them each week.

I was lucky enough to be given the chance to chat with Dan Caten on the phone last week and asked him a few questions about this new show. Here is a snippet of our conversation!

What’s the story about your involvement in Launch My Line?

We were asked to be judges of the show and we were asked to do a video reel for judging. And when the producers saw the video, they thought we were really funny and so we were asked to host and judge.

What do you think is the most important factor to decide who will become a winner of the show? Is it their vision, creativity or business skill?

I think it has to be a bit of everything. The key thing of what we try to do is to try and have a continutity and create a brand and line. We try to ask them to make each garment has something to do with the next garment and the next garment and so on. So when you look at a rack you’ll see a whole collection. So the key thing is having a line that they’re going to launch. And I think the winner of the show does that perfectly in coming up with a 10-piece collection.

What was the most fun part about doing the show?

I think the most fun part about it was when giving critique in the show, but that was also the hard part, when you had to send them (the contestants) home. You know, you started to get to know them really well after a month of shooting. But that’s the nature of the show. Somebody’s gotta lose and somebody’s gotta win.

So any episodes that you think we should not miss?

When we have a special guest! We have pretty good special guests coming on to the show so you do not want to miss that one. But actually there are two or three episodes that I really like as well, like when we had to go to a gallery and the one where there was a conflict between the 2 designers. Those are my favorites!

What do you say about people who criticize the show and said that Launch My Line is no different than Project Runway?

It’s not my show, I’m just hosting the show but I have to say Launch My Line is different than any other reality shows out there because somebody who can make a pretty dress doesn’t mean they’re gonna be a designer, and if it’s not the designer who will win the show, it is for people outside watching the show, so they can say “I wanna be a designer , I need to know this and this. ” So what we’re trying to teach people on this show is what it really takes, to have their own personal style, trying to be consistent, trying to build a brand, trying to have a signature, trying to build an awareness, trying to have an individuality. There are some of the clothes in the show that are really ugly but they are consistent and that designer has a vision. I don’t like his vision, but he is consistent. Whereas other designers might create one thing one week, something else the next week and that’s the first one that’s gonna go. So maybe in other fashion reality shows like Project Runway, if a contestant makes a pretty dress, they get by. On this show, that’s not the case.

If I was a young designer and I wanted to be a designer and if I watched the show, I would learn a lot. And I think that’s the best thing about the show.

Interesting, right? I got to watch about 15 minutes of the first episode of Launch My Line and already I was breathless looking at all the contestants frantically grabbing fabrics at the store for the outfits they haven’t even designed yet! 😀 I want to watch more so I’m definitely going to tune in to Sony Entertainment Television tonight at 8 PM.