"FUN SHUI" NEEDS A WARDROBE MAKEOVER

I’ve been watching the HGTV show "Fun Shui" for a few weeks now (Friday nights at 8:30 CST) and want to preface my comments by saying I really do think the show is doing a good job. There are some good teachable moments and some clever ideas. Watching a place transform makes for good viewing and I think they’re pretty spot on.

Now, however, I think it’s time to bring in a wardrobe coach. What is it with those clothes Stefanie the consultant wears? Is she going to a ball-game? running errands? Does she only have that one pair of jeans? I’m waiting for the show that has her wearing a baseball cap. This is a professional appointment, people. Come on, dress her accordingly. I’ve met this woman----she doesn’t dress like this otherwise, that I could tell. I’ve seen her in a very attractive two-piece suit, or a pair of dress slacks with a sweater. She’s a mature woman who should no longer be dolled up in tops appropriate for an 18-year-old, with a pair of stone-washed jeans and those boots. She never takes those boots off even when painting walls. Wouldn’t it be nice if we saw her remove those things at the front door so she could respectfully walk through the space without danger of scuffing up the wood floors?

I guess my beef is that I’ve seen how hard some of us have worked to get people to take Feng Shui and Feng Shui consultants seriously. If I showed up in something like that, I’d be apologizing all over myself to the client explaining how my house had burned down and this was all I was wearing when I ran out of the burning building. What would it hurt to make her a bit more age appropriate?

My other wardrobe gripe has to do with editing. I think they’re trying to make it look like this whole make-over thing took one day since everyone is wearing the same outfit in the beginning and then at the end. But in-between everyone wears different clothes. This doesn’t take an Oliver Stone to know that sequential integrity is important. I get that they would change clothes when they’re involved in the "hands on" parts where we see them happily pushing paint rollers around. But then to bring them back in the original outfits to end the program? Who dropped the wardrobe ball here? On more than one show Stefanie announces that she’s going to take her client shopping. The next shot in the story shows her and her client in the store in different clothes and different hair-dos. Maybe I’ve made a mistaken assumption that they’re shopping in the city in which the client lives. Maybe they’re traveling to another city, or country for that matter. Then they would, of course, have to change clothes after traveling so far. However, it’s unsettling when they return to the house and they’re all back in their original outfits. When did they have time to launder those clothes? Since they’re traveling to destinations unknown to do the shopping, couldn’t they have made a little side-trip and bought something new to wear when they came home? Look, here’s the new headboard we found in Italy, and isn’t this a cute jacket I bought there as well?

While I’m on it, the producers also need to give Stefanie a few coaching sessions about hand gestures. She’s getting a little out of control with them. I’m waiting for the time when she pokes someone’s eye out with those fingers she points. I detected on a recent show one of the client’s ducking ever so slightly to avoid being whacked on the side of his head from her waving arms. This is easy to overcome (I should know) so hopefully they’ll get on this. Oh yes, one more thing----please don’t show her plopping herself on someone’s bed to drive home a point about an over-head shelf. She can just use those fingers to point at it.