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Stylista: episode guide 1.1 recap “The Pilot”

by Samantha on October 24th, 2008

Stylista: episode 1.1 “The Pilot”
Original Air Date: 10/22/2008

Stylista didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but it was far more tolerable than I thought it was going to be. While a vast part of the show does seem staged, the aspiring stylists are also endearing…at least some of them are.

Image © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

The show kicks off and we see all the contestants coming to the Elle offices in downtown New York City. First off is Cologne, a blonde from California, who is cute, but hardly memorable. The show skims the stylists, giving us first impressions of who we might like, and who we might hate (yes, we’re talking about Meghan).

The kids arrive at the offices, and Kate immediately introduces herself. Her personality is cute and bubbly enough, though it’s throwing a lot of people off. After all, this is fashion, where being doom-and-gloom is where it’s at, so the group is already getting sick of her. Particularly Dyshaun and Meghan, who team against Kate right away.

As they’re getting to know each other, in walk Brett Ramey and Melina Joseph,  both editors at Elle. They’re ready to give the aspiring editors their first assistant duties and it’s less than glamorous.

The Assistant Challenge
The editors inform the group that Anne Slowey (our “host” of sorts, I guess) will arrive in exactly 40 minutes. In those 40 minutes, they’re supposed to head to the local deli, some six blocks away and spend the $40 left on their desks wisely. The task? To create a stylish and healthy breakfast for Anne.

OK, now this challenge makes no sense. How the heck are these kids supposed to know what this woman likes to eat, how she takes her coffee, etc.? This seems stupid to me. The group eats it up, of course, and they jet off to the deli, except for poor Ashlie. As we see the others scramble around the deli for fruit, nuts and the other standard “fashionable food.”

Anne arrives, trampling around in her platform YSLs and vetoes most of the things they’ve put together. Ashlie, who arrived back at the offices with two minutes left to get her breakfast together, wins the challenge and gets to break the stylists into groups for the following day’s challenge.

Team 1- Ashlie’s own team consists of herself, plus Cologne, Johanna and Dyshaun, while the following teams are…

Team 2- Arnaldo, Meghan and Danielle.

Team 3- William, Kate, and Devin.

The Junior Editor Challenge

The next day the stylists meet up at the flagship H&M. The challenge is to style themselves, creating three looks that are work appropriate. The teams raid the store, and Devin admits she’s always wanted to be handed a wad of money for a timed shopping spree. $1500 and 45 minutes in the store is what the stylists have to work with before going back to the loft to style themselves.

Following the fashion show at the Elle offices, the groups will be responsible for creating a mock-up of a contributors’ page for Elle magazine. Devin feels like she’ll excel here because her background is in fashion journalism and she’s the editor-in-chief of NYU’s fashion publication.

When she arrives at the loft, Danielle doesn’t feel comfortable in front of Anne and the Elle crew, but she’s going to have to lose that quick if she’s making it to the final three (damn you Top Model for always making me reference that when discussing reality show competitions!). Everyone seems to enjoy this challenge except for Kate, who is in tears because she doesn’t feel like the clothes are “her” enough. William offers a sympathetic “oh well” and continues styling himself.

At the Elle offices, the staff is awaiting the fashion show that the stylists will put on. OK, don’t they have actual work to do around there? I sure as heck can’t seen Wintour gathering Plum Sykes and Sally Singer around for a mock fashion show in the middle of a work day.

The groups show their stuff, which is awkward and odd on the rinky-dink little stage that Elle has created INSIDE the offices. Ashleigh walks well, and poor Kate walks onto the stage looking uncomfortable.

The groups are then given disks with their pictures from the show. They’re to select one photo, and write a 30 word paragraph about their style. Team B confuses this and Meghan insists that it’s 30 words all together (now how would this make sense? Seriously?!) so the team goes in that direction.

The teams work to create the mock-up, trying to create a theme within the page. After this they present their pages to Anne and the other judges.

Deliberation
In this case, the judges are Anne, Joe Zee, and the guest judge is Elle’s senior fashion and accessories editor Kate Lamphear. I guess a guest judge each week will be from the Elle staff (sort of stupid, but whatever).

The judges feel Team 1 applied the directions they were given, and understand the philosophy of Elle. Team 3 also gets a few compliments, but as a whole, the layout was messy and way too bright. When was the last time you saw a yellow page in a magazine?

Team 2 is a weird story because they didn’t do the assignment (which Anne is quick to remind them, of course). In the end it’s Teams 2 and 3 in the bottom, and Team 3 wins by default since they at least completed the assignment and were able to take direction (even if they did a junky job).

In the bottom two we have Danielle and Arnaldo. Anne criticizes Danielle for not speaking up, and Arnaldo for not taking enough fashion risks. Arnaldo is sent home, and Danielle is invited to “spend another week at Elle.”

Oh, and this show’s catch phrase?

You. Don’t. Fit.

Ouch!

Next week: more tears from Kate, and a spat between Ashlie and Meghan. *insert catfight noise here*

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POSTED IN: Episode Resources, Fashion Television, Program Recaps, Stylista