Plenty of television's fashion reality shows depict the work that goes into designing clothes and the results — for better and worse. But until now viewers could not run to the store the next day and buy the winning wardrobe. That's the new wrinkle in NBC's "Fashion Star," debuting at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Two Seattle-area women are among the show's 14 competitors seeking the top prize: a $6 million order for a collection of clothing to be sold in Macy's, H&M and Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
But even if they don't get named top Fashion Star, Mercer Island's Lisa Vian Hunter and Sammamish's Lizzie Parker still have a shot at getting their designs into one of the three chains. Each week, buyers from Macy's, H&M and Saks will bid on contestants' designs; the winning store will have those clothes on their racks available for sale the next day. (Although there's no Saks store in Seattle, the clothes will be available at saksfifthavenue.com.) Designers who make no sales to the chains' buyers will be up for elimination.
Hunter, 47, operates Vian Hunter House of Fashion in Madison Valley (vianhunter.com). Parker, 42, has her store, Lizzie Parker, at Gilman Village in Issaquah (lizzieparkerstore.com). Both women previously had conversations with producers from Lifetime's "Project Runway" and Bravo's short-lived "The Fashion Show." Both women were contacted about "Fashion Star" by the show's casting department.
"['Fashion Star'] was the right fit for me," Parker said. "It's all about selling clothes. I'm about women wearing my clothes, not making a dress out of beer cans. ... I've stood at trade shows and had the Macy's buyer walk by my booth, and now I get the chance to work with them and that's why for me it's a great fit."
A self-described "nerd," Parker moved to Seattle from Michigan in 1994, working for Microsoft until the birth of her children. Seven years ago, after "almost losing my mind" as a stay-at-home parent, she bought two sewing machines she found on Craigslist and started a business out of her garage using clothes-making knowledge imparted by her grandmother. She also apprenticed under Belltown's Carole McClellan for a summer.
Hunter arrived in Seattle three years ago, moving her store up from a previous location in Palo Alto, Calif. She said she was always interested in fashion but when her mother took her for a tour of a San Francisco fashion design school as a teenager, she didn't think she was ready ("I was too much of a flake then," she said). After a career working for Nordstrom and a boutique, she decided to attend the same fashion school in her late 30s.
"We're hoping this boost is what we need to get our business off the ground," Hunter said. "We'd love to open multiple stores at some point, but you have to be very, very careful these days to grow your business."
"Fashion Star" executive producer E.J. Johnston described Parker's style as more contemporary and Hunter's as more classic, but, he added, "They showed they could run the full spectrum. That's a whole part of the show: Getting to see people stretch themselves."
Hunter said her fashions are "vintage inspired."
"I love the late '50s and early '60s," she said. "For fashion, it was such a feminine time."
Parker prefers to design clothing she calls "timeless with an edge."
"I like asymmetrical angles," she said. "I like to have things that are easy to incorporate into your everyday wardrobe. My customer is the everyday American woman who wants to be anything but average."
Jessica Simpson, one of the show's celebrity mentors, praised both contestants.
"A lot of women will be able to relate to them and their designs," she said. "And they both got really lucky on the show, too, so I think they were given opportunities that they never dreamt could happen."
Hunter and Parker said they have no personal rivalry from their "Fashion Star" experience. They did a trunk show together last fall and have been able to commiserate about the shared secret of how they fared on the series.
"Eight months is a long time to hold a secret in, especially one like this," Parker said. "It was really nice to have someone here who knew, too."
They're both happy to represent Seattle and are eager to change some fashion perceptions.
"I think it's a huge testament to Seattle fashion," Hunter said. "To those people who think we're all about Eddie Bauer and fleece, I'm sorry, they picked two designers from Seattle to be among 14 nationwide. That tells a lot about fashion and Seattle — that there is fashion here in Seattle."
Rob Owen: RobOwenTV@gmail.com or on Facebook and Twitter as RobOwenTV.
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