E-Mail This Article to a Friend Wear thee well The hosts of TLC’s What Not To Wear speak out about style, self-image, and marabou trim BY TAMARA WIEDER

NEXT TIME YOU’RE late for work and the laundry’s piled up and you reach into your closet and pull out that shirt with the hole and stain that you swear — swear! — you’ll never wear again after this last time because you’ve got nothing left that’s clean, beware. If the team from What Not To Wear has been put on your trail, hidden-camera footage of your fashion blunder may soon be making its way to national television.

The TLC reality show, modeled after the British program of the same name, gives viewers the chance to nominate their style-challenged friends, family members, and co-workers for a fashion intervention — including a makeover and a $5000 shopping spree — by WNTW hosts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, former fashion journalists and stylists. Of course, no reality-television program is complete without guts and gore — in this case in the form of public broadcast of that hideous hidden-camera footage of too-tight pants, stained sweats, garish makeup, and otherwise inappropriate attire.

But London — one of the original hosts of the show, which debuted last year — and Kelly, who came aboard this season (he replaced Wayne Lukas, who appeared to have fashion issues of his own), insist their brand of advice and criticism is of the constructive kind. Even the show’s trademark 360-degree mirror, before which all participants must stand in their most pitiful clothes as London and Kelly look on in mock horror, is meant to serve as a catalyst for improvement, rather than a chamber of body-image torture.

Q: What were the first few episodes of the first season like?

Stacy London: Oh my God, it was so nerve-racking. It really was. It’s completely different being a stylist who’s used to being behind the camera, and being able to check how everything looks, as opposed to being in front of the camera, and looking down and thinking, " Does that crease work on me? I don’t know if that wrinkle is supposed to be there. " And all of a sudden you sort of doubt all the expertise you have. And also, it’s one thing to style something on a model and say, " That’s faaabulous, that’s going to make a faaabulous cover. " It’s another to really try and recreate a wardrobe for someone who has to live with it afterwards. And who doesn’t need to walk the red carpet, and has a real life, and has a busy schedule. You wind up really having to take into account somebody’s age, somebody’s body type, somebody’s lifestyle. And also, regardless of how people dress, you do have to respect their opinion.

Clinton Kelly: Whether you want to or not.

SL: Right. I mean, you can’t strong-arm them and shove violet down their throat when they don’t want to wear the color. You have to find ways to encourage them to push themselves. The idea of the secret footage is very, very helpful because it really does take people outside themselves and really makes them look at the way that they’re dressing. It’s a great tool — that’s sort of our best weapon to say, " Hey, maybe you should try something new. " And I think it goes a long way to convince them that we may have a point. Even when we give them the rules, a lot of times they’re like, " That’s never going to work on me, that’ll never work, " but when they go and test it out when they go shopping, they really do start to see the difference in the way they look.

CK: Stacy brings up a really good point. There is so much psychology involved in this job, I had no idea. When people see themselves on that secret footage or in the 360 mirror, you just know that they’re just one breath away from having a mental breakdown.

SL: As I did, when I went in the 360.

CK: As I do, when I watch the show on Friday nights! It’s like, why didn’t anyone tell me I had cameltoe? No, I’m just kidding. But it’s really tough. We really feel for these people as they’re sitting there, especially the people who’ve had a change in their body for one reason or another, like having kids or going through menopause or just gaining a lot of weight, letting themselves go, to use that awful expression. It’s really difficult to look at yourself objectively. But then we’re all about, " This is the way your body is now, you’ve got really great points, really great features, and let’s make the most of them. " Once we get past that point, people are usually excited about the whole process.

SL: Yeah, we’re not big advocates of, like, " Well, if you just firmed up, and if you lost 10 pounds ... " We don’t care about that. Because any body type can be dressed well; it really is a question of finding what works for each person.

CK: Yeah. And you never know what the future’s going to bring. I mean, a year from now you might lose 10 pounds, you might gain 10 pounds, you might stay the same. So don’t dress for what might happen; dress for the way you are right now.

Q: Why do you think people are so eager essentially to have their friends and family humiliated on national television? Because there is some element of humiliation, right?

CK: It’s very mild humiliation, I think. Everything we’re saying to these people, we’re saying with love. It’s all tongue-in-cheek, we’re joking around with them, we’re smiling. We’re not, like, making value judgments about them.

Q: But there’s a lot of unflattering footage.

CK: Well, it’s nothing the whole world isn’t seeing already. I mean, you walk down the street in New York City, let’s say, and a million people see you.

SL: That’s what we always try and remind the participants: they’re like, " Ooh, I look terrible on camera. " We’re like, " It’s not the camera. " If you’re walking around that way, that’s the way you look. But I do think what Clinton was saying before about psychology is actually really important. As much as we do joke around and try and be very pointed with the kind of criticism that we have, we are sticking to the clothing. The other thing about that is we do spend a lot of time off camera with these people. We need to gain their trust, to a certain extent, for them to feel that it’s okay for us to joke around, and that we’re not attacking them. And that really does come from really explaining the format of the show, and really being supportive, and saying, " You can do this. This is the first step in the right direction. " And what I find is that a lot of people on the show really feel like being nominated and having the makeover is a turning point for them. And if they can do this, they can do other things. They can change jobs. They can reinforce their relationship with their husband. They can go out and meet a new guy. They can have more kids. Whatever it is. It really reinstates a sense of lost confidence.

Q: Does any one outfit from the secret footage you’ve seen really stand out as the worst?

CK: I don’t know about you, Stacy, but I think Gina’s ridiculous, sort of psychedelic —

SL: Oh right, the bunny-in-the-plant outfit, yeah.

CK: Gina was our first episode that aired [this season], and she wore this sort of green, psychedelic print —

SL: It was turquoise-and-green flower-power print with marabou trim.

CK: Marabou trim.

Q: What’s the most common fashion blunder you encounter?

CK: Clothes that do not fit.

SL: Too big or too small.

CK: By far, by far. Women not knowing their bra size, not wearing a bra when they need to be wearing a bra, that’s a big thing. And every guy thinks he’s a large.

SL: Or an extra-large!

CK: Or an extra-large. " I’m big, I’m a big man. " No. You’re small.

SL: You’re five-seven and you weigh less than I do, so that doesn’t qualify as an extra-large.

CK: And then also, I think being too casual is another blunder people make, like wearing sweatpants to the office. Just giving up, not even trying anymore. Wearing things with no shape.

Q: What’s your biggest fashion pet peeve?

SL: Tapered pants for plus-size women. I’m not mad at the plus-size women, I’m mad at the people making those pants!

CK: I cannot stand those chunky platform heels. Why do you want to look like Frankenstein foot? I just don’t get it. Nobody is ever going to look taller, slimmer —

SL: Sophisticated, glamorous —

CK: Sophisticated, sexy, with a big club foot going on. It’s just not working.

Q: What fashion trend will never come back?

SL: I don’t believe there’s any fashion trend that won’t come back. Unfortunately I do believe there is a finite number of trends available in any designer’s mind, and eventually they’re going to reach back and choose something that is ugly and try and update it. The thing is, there are cycles. I can guarantee you military will come back. It used to be every five years; now it’s every two. And the more we’re at war, the easier it is to just throw a pair of camouflage pants on a model. Honestly, I don’t know of a trend that may never make an appearance again.

Q: Do you guys feel a lot of pressure to always look good, since people know you as the pair who tell other people how bad they look?

SL: I definitely feel the pressure, but there’s nothing I can do about not looking good all the time. I have to be honest, I really do believe that Clinton was really made to be on television, whereas I need a lot of work to be on TV. It was not the natural state of affairs. I don’t think my parents were really planning on it. So genetically speaking, it does take quite a bit of work to get me there.

CK: It takes a lot of flat-ironing, that’s all it is. It’s the flat iron. On the show, yeah, there’s a lot of pressure, because God forbid you wear something that doesn’t quite work. I mean, [viewers] go crazy on the Web site.

SL: Oh yeah — they attack us. It’s unbelievable.

Q: What was the deal with former co-host Wayne? People seemed to think he was as unfashionable as anyone you ever had on the show.

SL: Yes, that was an issue, definitely. There was a lot of questioning about that. But the fact is, Wayne is an incredibly, incredibly talented stylist. And to his credit — I mean, I have to say, that is one of the issues in becoming an on-camera talent as opposed to somebody who’s behind the camera — he always dressed for comfort, and he always dressed in a way that he felt was appropriate to his job, and didn’t change his identity just because he was doing it on TV. In a lot of cases, I really did feel that it wasn’t so much of an issue, because we were mostly doing women on the show; we did one guy for the first season. They’ll take advice from Wayne because Wayne’s sort of like the best friend standing with you in front of the mirror. It’s a lot harder I think on a lot of levels for women to take advice from other women if they don’t feel there’s something that they want to emulate about that person. So I really felt like I needed to dress up more in order to win a certain amount of confidence with the people that we were dressing, because I wanted them to feel like I wasn’t going to lead them astray, whereas I didn’t feel that was so much an issue for Wayne. Obviously I think audiences felt a little differently.

Q: What do you say to people who say, " People should be allowed to wear whatever they want as long as they’re happy and comfortable " ?

SL: I don’t know anybody who’s like, " I’m so happy in a sweat suit. " I’ve heard " I’m comfortable, " but I don’t know about happy.

CK: I personally feel that people can wear whatever the hell they want. I mean, I really don’t care what the average person on the street is wearing. But if you’re coming to me for a job, if you’re coming to me to do my plumbing, to redecorate my house, I’m going to take into account what you’re wearing. Go ahead and be comfortable all day long; I really don’t care. Your friends and family are the ones who nominated you for this show, so they obviously think there’s a problem. If you’ve got all the money in the world, go right ahead and dress however you want. If you’ve got all the friends you’ll ever need, all the sex you’ll ever want to get, dress however you want — that’s great. But if you want more money, more sex, I think it makes sense to dress up a little bit.

SL: First impressions make a difference. And it’s as easy to put on a good pair of pants as an ugly pair of pants. So once you know what actually fits your body, if it’s going to take the same amount of effort, why not look polished? Why not look impressive?

What Not To Wear airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on TLC. Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com