When Fashion TV becomes an anthropological treasure

There is no live mode to watch now. No shows; no red carpets; not really street style. The cruise collections that normally take place in distant destinations in May and June have been canceled.

The Met Gala and Council of Fashion Designers of America awards have been postponed (assuming they happen); the Cannes Film Festival is closed. Raids to the supermarket or the park only bring back leggings and sweatpants and casual jeans. The window shopping is finished.

But we still have television.

And on television (or on the various screens that pass for television today), there is a new palette of reality mode programs that are currently streaming or about to broadcast.

They understand the restarted Project Runway with Karlie Kloss and Christian Siriano, who recently ended his network season on Bravo but is available on bravotv.com; Next in fashion, Netflix / Net-a-Porter production, which fell last month, hosted by Alexa Chung and Tan France; and Making the Cut, the Amazon adopts the genre, with everyone’s sponsors, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum, which debuts on March 27.

Project Runway “allows viewers to buy the looks via bravotv.com; a complete collection of the Next in Fashion winner is for sale on Net-a-Porter; and after each episode of Making the Cut, a winner’s item will go on sale on Amazon Fashion.

This evolution is an expression of the ethics formerly in power, see now / buy now. (Remember that? How strange it sounds.) It may also be an attempt to solve the conundrum that the track project has always encountered: why, in 17 seasons, only Mr. Siriano has emerged with a serious business?

Beyond that, each show draws the curtain to a different dimension from the fashion world. Project Runway, despite its younger bias with Mrs. Kloss and Mr. Siriano, as well as a jury that includes Elaine Welteroth, once from Teen Vogue and Brandon Maxwell, is still the most traditional reality TV production.

There is Mrs. Kloss, often in evening gowns; some candidates for learning my kitchen sink; and a story that focuses more on the fairy tale of victory over adversity that often seems to be steeped in fashion myth than on everyday aspects of design.

Making the Cut has the biggest wallet for a winner ($ 1 million) and focuses on the evolution of the designer as a brand that mimics what has happened in fashion over the past decade. As Ms. Klum lectures in a first episode, the creator of the brand is just as important as the clothes on the run.

To this end, each participant arrives at the show at a slightly more advanced stage in their career. One is Professor Parsons; some have their own stores; all have created collections for sale. And in each episode, they must create a runway look and an accessible look (the accessible look is what will be sold on Amazon, in sizes XXS to XXL).

The judges include Naomi Campbell, Joseph Altuzarra and Chiara Ferragni (the Italian influencer also known as the Blonde Salad). Once they have made their verdict, often dressed in sequins and sequins, candidates have the opportunity to plead their own case.

Look, I want to continue here, I can’t see myself doing anything else, said Renat of Israel. (Attention art schools: please offer a media training course.)

There is a lot of anxiety about the balance between art and trade a competitor, Sander, from Belgium, who clearly has visions of Rei Kawakubo dancing in his head, is anxious about the requirements of portability which is also a constant existential debate in designer conversations. Or at least was.

If Making the Cut is back on the business side, Next in Fashion is a celebration of design. Of the three, it seems the least artificial and the most like being inside a design studio. Ms. Chung wears sneakers and pants most of the time, instead of dressing up in cocktails, and neither she nor Mr. France take themselves too seriously.

The winner gets $ 250,000 and Net-a-Porter will sell their clothes; the judges, including stylist Elizabeth Stewart (Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis), and rotating designers (Christopher Kane, Kerby Jean-Raymond de Pyer Moss, Tommy Hilfiger) give compliments which most often involve statements as I can see Taylor Swift in there or I could see Michelle Obama wearing that. Once upon a time there was the greatest praise.

The creators themselves are more established than those of the other two fashion shows (Angel Chen of China was included in the Business of Fashion 500 and Forbes Asia 30 under 30; Ashton Michael of Los Angeles dressed Beyonc and Post Malone ). Their products are more polished, less like an art school costume than ambitious clothes.

The topics covered have been the defining themes of fashion over the past 10 years: stress, self-expression and the challenge of those who know how to sew against those who are creative directors. And the ultimate winner (no spoilers here) really seems to be the next in fashion. Or at least what would have been, if the trajectory on which we were had remained the same.

Whether this is still true is now in question. Perhaps more than anything, these shows will soon look like brilliant relics of the world that was before store closings and bankruptcies have become the most pressing topics in fashion. In this case, whatever you think of the form or the characters involved, they will have an anthropological value not to be underestimated.