Fashion Star is an American reality competition television series created by Rick Ringbakk in which contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are restricted in time, materials and theme. Their designs are judged, orders are placed and one or more designers are eliminated each week.
The series aired in the USA on NBC from 13 March, 2012 to 10 May, 2013. There are 20 hour-long episodes in two seasons.
Fashion Star premiered in South Africa on M-Net Series Reality on Friday 12 July 2013, at 21h30. It later aired on Vuzu. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 2 premiered on Vuzu on Thursday 1 May 2014, at 20h30. New episodes broadcast weekly. There are 10 episodes in the second and final season.
Synopsis
Fashion Star searches for the next big brand in fashion.
Featuring host Elle Macpherson (Season 1) and Louise Roe (Season 2) along with celebrity mentors Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie and John Varvatos, the series gives unknown designers the chance to win a multi-million dollar prize to launch their collections in three of America's largest retailers: Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue, H&M (Season 1) and Express (Season 2).
Each week, the show begins with an exhilarating fashion show unlike anything seen before featuring musical performances, dancers and models in front of a studio audience.
Every fashion show will be built around a weekly challenge that is designed to further develop and expand the designers' brands.
The series features clothes designed for America to buy and it has enlisted the world's top retailers to help in the decision-making process.
Caprice Willard (Macy's), Terron E. Schaefer (Saks Fifth Avenue), Nicole Christie (H&M) and Erika DeSalvatore (Express) serve as the judges who make on-the-spot decisions as they vie for the right to purchase and exclusively carry the work of the up-and-coming designers each week.
At the end of each episode, America has the chance to immediately purchase the winning designs showcased on the episode that week. What viewers see on TV that night are on the streets and in stores immediately.
With just a single trip down the runway, Fashion Star changes the lives and fortunes of these aspiring designers forever.
Each week, designers who do not sell any of their items to the buyers are up for elimination. In addition, celebrity mentors Simpson, Richie and Varvatos are able to save one of these designers from the chopping block.
The fashion designers featured on the show include everyone from the stay-at-home mom who makes her own clothes to sell at the local community market to the recent design school graduate who has held jobs with major design houses to an engineer who became a self-taught designer.
Many of the contestants come to the competition with their own existing lines and are challenged to take their brand to the next level.
All the contestants are put to the test to see how they react in a variety of real-world scenarios to determine who has the vision and desire to build a fashion empire and achieve his or her dream.
With top experts as their guides and mentors throughout the process, designers have to be as adept in the business of fashion as they are in their creativity as it's up to them to make their brand a national reality.
In the end, one designer will successfully combine fashion and business to become the next Fashion Star and will receive the prize of a lifetime - millions of dollars in orders for capsule collections in all three of the featured stores.
The Fashion Star format was developed by Ben Silverman of Electus, Rick Ringbakk of Emmy Award-winning 5x5 Media and E.J. Johnston and James Deutch of EJD Productions.
The show is executive-produced by Elle Macpherson, Ben Silverman of Electus, Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth of The Magical Elves, Rick Ringbakk of 5x5 Media, and EJ Johnston and James Deutch of EJD Productions.
Seasons
Season 1 (10 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Series Reality | Premiere: 12 Jul 2013 | Finale: 13 Sep 2013 | Fri, 21h30
Channel: Vuzu | Premiere: 2 Oct 2013 | Finale: 4 Dec 2013 | Wed, 20h30
Season 2 (10 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Series Reality | Premiere: 15 Nov 2013 | Finale: 17 Jan 2014 | Fri, 21h30
Channel: Vuzu | Premiere: 1 May 2014 | Finale: 3 Jul 2014 | Thu, 20h30