Is the makeover over?

A new outfit and a haircut can change your life, say fashion experts Trinny and Susannah and even Gok Wan. But as their TV futures are questioned, are the gurus doing more harm than good?

Trinny and Susannah and Gok Wan Trinny and Susannah and Gok Wan

A SLIGHTLY wobbly 50-something woman stands in the dressing room, her lower lip quivering as TV duo Trinny and Susannah loudly list her physical flaws.

“You need to sort this out,” Susannah trills while manhandling her poor subject’s bust. Her companion Trinny is more sympathetic when it comes to the woman’s semi-naked form but is soon rifling through her subject’s wardrobe, pulling out a garish jumper here, faded jeans there and expressing utter horror at her sartorial mistakes.

It is the standard format for the pair’s no-nonsense, some might say bullying, fashion show – an often overweight woman, possibly with bad hair, almost always seriously lacking confidence, is given a makeover by Trinny and Susannah.

She will be encouraged to share her fears and insecurities and offered a cashmere-clad shoulder to cry on when asked about her personal problems – once she’s been thoroughly humiliated by the fashion gurus.

In its heyday, Trinny and Susannah’s exploits regularly pulled in as many as seven million viewers but ratings for their latest show Undress The Nation are just over a third of that and there are whispers that the pair have been usurped by younger, more fashion-aware presenters fronting shows that are simply nicer to their subjects.

One such upstart is Channel 4’s Gok Wan who, with How To Look Good Naked and Gok’s Fashion Fix, is treading a path first paved by Trinny and Susannah – only with a little more support and comfort for his brave subjects.

“I really think Trinny and Susannah ruined it for themselves when they branched out into offering counselling and advice instead of just fashion tips,” says Daily Express TV critic Matt Baylis. “I don’t think I’ve ever come across women who are less sympathetic. They actually give off distaste; you can practically see their nostrils twitching with dislike for someone. It was certainly a step too far for the bulk of viewers.”

In terms of ratings, it’s an approach that does not seem to have paid off.

“They’re posh and patronising, I can’t bear to watch any more,” says one former fan. “The show actually makes me feel bad because they have such an idealised notion of what you should look like, wear and even achieve in life. I find Gok Wan much more sensitive.”

Where Trinny and Susannah routinely lay into those who bravely appear on their show, the likes of Gok take a more gentle approach.

“Gok Wan has attracted a wider audience, especially with the younger crowd and seems to instil more

confidence in his subjects,” says Daily Express fashion editor Mark O’Connor.

“Women like to get a male opinion on what to wear and Gok gives them this. Trinny and Susannah have always been about what works with particular figures and not necessarily about solid fashion advice.”

In his show, Wan encourages his subjects to accept and appreciate their figures, as well as learn to pick fashionable clothes. It’s a style that has earned him praise and legions of female fans who are hugely grateful for his apparent love for women, regardless of their shapes and sizes.

“I have had women crying in front of me, trying to touch me, telling me how I’ve changed their lives,” Wan says. “It is good-hearted and we try to make a difference.”

But, say some critics, his overly-confident, say-nothing-nasty approach is as demeaning as it is ineffective, especially his rather unbelievable enthusiasm for women of all sizes.

After all, if you don’t tell the truth, what hope do these people have for solving the underlying problems that made them feel so self-conscious?

A new outfit, make-up and a £200 haircut may look good on TV but once the cameras are off, the gurus move on to the next subject and their guinea pigs return to the same fashion faux-pas that made them so depressed in the first place.

Wan has spoken of how his difficult childhood – he was bullied at school – shaped his desire to appear kind, not cruel, and has said that openly criticising people on television goes against his entire ethos.

“I think the days of nasty TV are over,” says Wan. “We don’t want to see someone getting slaughtered for wearing the wrong shoes. I don’t like this TV dictatorship.”

He says his show focuses on giving “really honest, best-friend” advice and is wholly against offering cosmetic surgery as a solution. Shows such as Ten Years Younger (which encourages the surgical route) are “dangerous” because, he says: “They present the options as have plastic surgery and be happy or don’t have it and be unhappy.”

But Gok has been criticised for presenting one image in front of the camera and another behind the scenes.

A model who worked on a show filmed in Manchester says he was rude and offensive. “Gok reduced me to tears on many occasions during filming,” says Daisy Idwal Jones. It’s an accusation strenuously denied by 33-year-old Gok.

There will always be questions about an industry based on very fickle attitudes.

“I’ve heard Gok Wan talk about how he used to be ‘fat and disgusting’ but there he is talking to larger women on TV and telling them ‘big is beautiful’,” says Baylis. “Could this be a little hypocritical? Trinny, 44, and Susannah, 46, say that on the one hand you have to ‘accept yourself’ but then they try to make people fit into a very definite look.

If you were really accepting yourself it wouldn’t matter if you were wearing a grey tracksuit or an evening dress.”

While makeover shows may claim to be making a huge, positive impact on their subjects’ lives, in reality the impact is either short-lived or, worse, detrimental.

In the Nineties, home makeover shows were the backbone of many TV schedules and horror stories emerged quite quickly – walls concealed by furniture were only partly painted and countless rooms were turned into garish boudoirs.

But when it comes to making over a person, the stakes are higher and some emerge with greater problems than those with which they set out.

One unfortunate participant was deemed by Nicky Hambleton-Jones on her show Ten Years Younger to have unattractive teeth.

The show, which takes a rather extreme approach to making people over, arranged expensive cosmetic dentistry for 46-year-old Julie Davis.

The result was a beautiful smile but she was left to cope with the side-effects – teeth so sensitive she could barely eat for months.

“If you watch the closing scenes of the programme, I’m standing there smiling and all my friends and family are looking really happy,” says Julie. “But that was far from the reality of the situation. The production team had to keep telling me to smile and act surprised but I was in so much agony I found it a struggle not to cry.

“Then, at the end of filming, they made me pose with a cocktail and I couldn’t even sip it because my teeth were shooting with pain.”

People who work in TV can often overlook the impact their shows have on the lives of their subjects, argues one producer who wishes to remain anonymous.

“There are the apparent problems, when a job is only half finished or when someone like Julie is left with painful cosmetic dentistry, but there are psychological problems which are just as common but we hear about them less often.”

There is no law protecting TV show participants’ rights; they often sign disclosure forms that permit pretty much anything to be broadcast about them, she explains.

“If someone is on a makeover show the chances are all their friends and family will see it, their neighbours, their work colleagues, everyone. If they’re made to look an idiot the implications are massive and there’s no

official procedure for after-care, it’s down to the producer’s discretion.

“But producers are under enormous pressure to deliver results and make explosive programmes – even if that means straying quite far from the truth with the end result.”

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