The Fashion Show: Ultimate Collection sews up season two with 12 new designers. Model Iman joins Isaac Mizrahi to work some knots out by judging on the runway.
Windy City Times: Hey, Isaac and Iman!
Iman: Hey.
Isaac Mizrahi: Hey, kid.
WCT: I haven't talked to you since last season, Isaac. How are the new contestants?
Isaac Mizrahi: I think that the level of talent for the contestants has really risen sort of exponentially and one good thing is that they are, let's say, temperamental and interesting in their interaction because they're more passionate about clothes.
It's a whole other ballgame. It's a game-changer, let's say.
WCT: Talk about a game-changer. My friend, Calvin Tran, is on this season.
Isaac Mizrahi: That sounds more like an oxymoron with Calvin and friend in the same sentence. I'm just kidding.
WCT: I wanted to know how you think he competes with having been established in three stores already in the United States: Chicago, New York and L.A.
Iman: Well, first of all, I was surprised when they told me that he had stores. I was like, "Well, isn't that a little bit more kind of established kind of thing, right?" And since you are a friend of his, you would know what kind of a person he is.
WCT: Yes, I do.
Iman: Now I haven't seen the whole show edited. Have you seen the first episode?
WCT: Not yet.
Iman: Well, from the first episode you'll see that we butted heads. He's very opinionated. But also he's a talented young man. He's passionate about what he does and I'll leave it at that.
Isaac Mizrahi: You know, I'll say one thing about Calvin. I kept asking—and I don't know if this has made it into any of the cuts—"Calvin, are you just doing this because it's reality TV and you think you're creating some kind of conflict here?" And then in the end, I said he must know that he's such an idiot and that everybody hates him, obviously.
But as the show kept going on, he's really talented and he's not just being an idiot for the sake of TV. He was actually just really like at sea. He did not know how to communicate with others.
Iman: Well, I have to tell you, the one thing that was really going on for him, he's the only person with an accent heavier than mine.
WCT: I was going to say he has a really heavy accent.
Isaac Mizrahi: Oh, that's true.
WCT: He really needs subtitles.
Iman: He needed more subtitles than I needed.
Isaac Mizrahi: I'll tell you one thing as the weeks progressed and he didn't get eliminated. We kept wondering like why—it's because he's quite good, that's why. In the end we really respected him a lot. I found a lot of respect for Calvin.
WCT: Well, that's great. How did you join the series, Iman?
Iman: I was asked to join. Isaac and I had a meeting since I have known Isaac over 20 years. And I really wanted to talk to him about the concerns I've had of what the show should look like. And our main thing was the show is called The Fashion Show. So we really should create a fashion show.
Bravo has supported us, both of us very, very well in understanding. And really we need to change the whole game of reality show when it comes to fashion. Where is the next level to go to? And what we really wanted to create is something that has a high drama of a reality show but really was based more on the talents, and to see something that the viewers have never seen before on TV. That was very, very important to us.
WCT: What surprised you about the experience?
Iman: What was really surprised me is the long hours. I have never worked this hard in my life.
WCT: What was it like working together?
Iman: As you know, I've been in fashion and as a model and business woman; I'm also a consumer, a woman who wears these clothes. I think what we are looking for is things that will really excite women and be excited to want to wear that outfit and elevate them, challenge them. We really get along together because we really come from a different place of the judging pyramid. But we had a couple of times that we couldn't make a decision because I had my point of view, he had his point of view and the guest judge had their point of view.
Isaac Mizrahi: I've known Iman for quite a long time, right? And there is a whole kind of culture that takes place backstage in fashion. It somehow tries so hard to kind of translate to the sun of the runway. Unzipped is something that happened to be a very good movie where you see the kind of personality backstage, whether it was my personality or Linda's personality in that case. Iman's voice has always been a very strong voice backstage. She's had a very strong sort of physical presence in the front. And I know that more and more, she's being called upon in this role. I know she does Project Runway Canada and I know that she speaks a lot. And she's on HSN and she's becoming more and more like a sort of a spokesperson. And she's been very loud and clear all these years.
You will not believe the kind of authority that this woman brings to it.
I don't think that Iman speaks that much. But what she does say is choice. She would come out with something and I would literally be almost moved to tears because she got the kind of emotional crux of it in like five words.
WCT: I heard there is a civil-union episode.
Iman: it is timely and but most importantly, you are going to love it and Rachel Zoe is the guest judge.
Isaac Mizrahi: Don't miss an episode. Set your DVR.
Watch what happens to Isaac and Iman Tuesdays on The Fashion Show. Check www.bravotv.com for listings and information.
