The aim of the game
Ten young women compete to become a DVF “global brand ambassador”. Essentially, it’s a turbocharged version of the reality of the current fashion industry, in which interns compete madly to do menial tasks in such an outstandingly smiley and delightful way that they get hired for actual jobs. The exact nature of the “brand ambassador” “job” is vague, but the DVF agenda is clear: the company needs to “connect with a new generation”. Everyone loves Diane, but she is 67; she is in search of a younger version of herself.
The concept
The September Issue crossed with The Apprentice. Move over Alan Sugar; DVF, in wrap dress and spectacles, is the new boss to please. Her team provide a chorus of brilliantly terrifying fashion characters. Stefani Greenfield, SVP of merchandising, wears a lot of fur and acts the cut-throat Cruella de Vil to DVF’s wise fairy godmother. Style editor Jessica Joffe plays the Emily Blunt/Devil Wears Prada character, all icy accent and perfectly arched eyebrows as the lolloping, puppyish candidates guffaw and gum-chew around her.
The look
Wrap dresses all round for the DVF team. Amazingly, none of the 10 candidates for the role seems to have considered the DVF label when planning their own looks, despite one of them boasting that her clothes are worth $500,000. Instead, their look is mostly The Hills, circa a decade ago: a LOT of lip gloss and hair-tonging. Tiffani, a 19-year-old with a tough south Bronx backstory and loads of tattoos, is the exception. (Also, as Diane notes: “She looks like a young Angelina Jolie.” Which never hurts.)
The drama
There are pretty tears in every other shot. But this is reality TV and, as in real life, the drama revolves around the very real-world drama of a phone battery being on 5%. Oh, and there’s light relief from candidate Rihanna, who becomes “dehydrated” as a result of witnessing Diane’s “radiance” in person, and has to be taken from the UN headquarters in an ambulance.
Quote
One candidate says: “As an international model, I’ve literally been around the world.”
