CheapJAP

Oy Vey!

You Can’t Wear That On Television!

Yesterday, I shot a TV thing for Style Network: A timed shopping challenge intended to promote Lucky Shops/Rafe Handbags/American Express and even Chevy Malibu - all in a three-minute fashion-reality segment! I’m coming clean with this info because if you happen see it and recognize that “Alexandra/Contestant#2/Eveningwear” is me, Cheap JAP, you will flip your non-existent nuts. And not in a good way.

For the first bit, the two other “contestants” and myself were dressed in our own “street clothes.” Here’s the short and lethal list of what I could NOT wear:

“Refrain from bringing any neon, cream, white, gray or black - as it does not film well on camera.”

Now, I’m a layering fiend. This means that - while I’m not opposed to color - most of my outfits are built on creams, whites, grays and blacks. This is probs the case for many of us. That we can’t wear what we’re most familiar and comfortable with on television - reality television, no less - seems counterintuitive to a practical means of approaching and enjoying Fashion.

I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of the actual shoot. I over-acted when it was called for; I wasn’t offended that the make-up girl had to powder my face nine thousand times because my eyelids were oily; I let the hair stylist tousle and re-tousle the messy ponytail it took him an hour to tie.

I don’t think that viewing this biznass as total bullshit makes me any less of a sell-out; I accept and embrace the fact that sometimes, ya gotta sell out before you get to do your own thang. I’m venting here (if only here) because I don’t ever want you to compare yourselves to those peppy, gorgeous, uber put-together chicks on TV, or in magazines, or wherever, and think you have to be that way. In real life, no one is.

Someday, on television, we’ll be able to wear black; tell Vogue to eff off; bend designers to our budgets; shop cheap, and be merry. Till then, I’ll be selling out in TV Land. But I’ll be keepin’ it real here (or attempting to, anyway). So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.