Fashion Flop

Was any other snow-bound house-troll, reduced to watching more telly than is good for them, disappointed by the clothes in Material Girl, BBC 1’s new fashion rom-com, last night?
Now, this may be prime-time televisual chick-lit but honestly. The paucity of imagination demonstrated by the costume team – presumably reflecting, they imagine, the middle-of-the-road tastes of its Grazia-reading target audience – left Gypsy Rose feeling sad. In particular, designer Ali’s supposedly most fabulous creation – the one that sparks catfights amongst warring fashionistas - was a bland column dress in black spangles that looked as if it could have graced an unadventurous matron with ambitions to sing on a cruise ship. At a pinch, it might have adorned a mature bellydancer in a Cairo nightspot, and although these ladies are glamorous beyond belief and have more moves in their little fingers than a whole floorshow of writhing lapdancers, their outfits unashamedly come from the tacky end of the wardrobe spectrum.
Isn’t it sad that the frock that we’re all meant to drool over looks like something from the ‘special occasion’ section of a high street department store, not something astonishing by Westwood or Galliano that transports its wearer into a world of dreams and the imagination? Something that takes the viewer’s breath away, and makes everyone who sees it turn green? The dress in question is meant to have been inspired by lightening striking the ocean: how they managed to come up with something that conventional and dreary is deeply puzzling. The dressing up boxes of fabulous girls should always contain wonders and make us feel as if every outfit can turn a day into an occasion. Material Girl’s offending garment, which looks as if it should be accessorised with helmet hair and fake tan, might just about do for us to wear doing the housework.