Next in Fashion & Making the Cut: The Modern Design Competitions

As a great fan of fashion design competitions, I’ve watched not a small amount of them. From the era when Michael Kors was a Project Runway judge, to Next In Fashion on Netflix and Making The Cut on Amazon Prime. In today’s article, I’m going to talk about the differences in both realities and what new things they provide us with.

A New Era In Reality TV Shows

We are currently witnessing an interesting change – the movement of such TV shows from conventional TV to video streaming platforms, such as Netflix и Amazon Prime. Project Runway is no longer hosted by Heidi Klum, but by Karlie Kloss. Consequently, Heidi needs new tribune. The new Amazon Prime reality – Making The Cut, is her next move. Tim Gunn has accompanied her throughout the years. He is an all-time favorite mentor both for the contestants and the audience and is also joining the new show. Which definitely lived up to my expectations, if not more. The larger budget lets them shoot the show in various expensive locations – such as fashion capitals like Paris and Tokyo. Every runway show is at a new place, e.g. the Eiffel Tower, near the river Seine, etc. It’s also not a ‘sewing competition’, so each day the designers have seamstresses who help them with sewing the basics for them.

What is more, each of the contestants already has a brand of their own. Some of them have arisen my curiosity and it will be interesting for me to see how they do until the end of the competition.

On the opposite hand, Netflix’s show hosted by fashion insider Alexa Chung and “Queer Eye” star Tan France was not so captivating at the beginning. The reason is that the contestants started in groups of two. This made it difficult for me, and perhaps for many others, to distinguish their personal aesthetics. There might be a plausible reason for that – it could be the more limited budget. During the second half of the show, the designers did split to work on their own. A significant part of the audience, however, may have already lost interest. For this reason, I would recommend another Netflix reality more than this one. It’s the makeup artist competition – Glow Up.

Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum are back, and they are Definitely Friends! Photo: Kristine Sparrow/Amazon Studios

It isn’t strenuous to determine who has a more generous budget. Next In Fashion awarded its winner with 250 000$ and the chance to sell their clothes of Net-a-porter. However, for the Making The Cut contestants, there is 1 million $ at stake. Which is expected since Amazon is not only a video-streaming platform.

The All-Time Problem With Fashion Design Competitions

Making the Cut is also trying to solve a problem from the bigger picture – the designers are soon forgotten after the reality show is over. Here is why the creators of the show have focused on the commercial and business side of fashion as much as on its creative designing one. After each challenge, the winning look is immediately sold on the Amazon website.

We also shouldn’t forget that Heidi and Tim are the producers themselves. Which looks like an act of sweet revenge to the Project Runway team, doesn’t it?

Featured photo: Tim Gunn speaks with a contestant on Amazon Prime’s Making the Cut reality show and fashion design competition series | Source: Courtesy