house of why

MTV’s New House of Style Is the House of Jelly Shoes and Friendship Bracelets

Tomorrow at 3 p.m. EST, MTV’s new version of House of Style premieres. Remember how great it was in the early nineties when Cindy Crawford hosted and did things like interview Jean Paul Gaultier about his first man skirts and corsets and take us behind the scenes of her latest Pepsi commercial, all without being annoying? Well, the new show is completely different, and based on the information that’s out there, we can make no reassurances on the non-annoying part. Bar Refaeli hosts and Chanel Iman is a special correspondent. Segments include a Top Ten Most Wanted Trends that touts jelly shoes, a lesson in how to make a friendship bracelet led by Teen Vogue’s fashion editor and Charlotte Ronson, a conversation with Taylor Swift about her style, a lesson from Jessica Stam about how to shop from one’s closet, and Chanel hanging out with Erin Fetherston as she throws a dinner party. But don’t despair! Justin Timberlake will take us behind the scenes at his William Rast fashion show. It might not be the same as Jean Paul Gaultier talking about his childhood fascination with corsets spliced with shots of his earliest cone bras, but it’s JT, who is hot and fronts a comically named clothing line, and that counts for something.

But we can’t have high expectations for the renovated House of Style when Chanel admits to Teen Vogue that all she knows about the original series seems to have come from five minutes of YouTube research. She didn’t even Wikipedia it.

Did you watch the original version in the 90’s?
That was before my time. I was born in 1990! So no, not really. I did see clips of Cindy on YouTube, and from what I saw I loved it … There’s Cindy, and … I forgot the other girls’ names! But I know there’s more. Cindy was the only one I found on YouTube when I did my research.


Oh interesting. Chanel says she was born in 1990, when in fact she was born in 1989. Could she be lying about her age — which many models and agencies often do — because she’s afraid of losing work? (Nineteen is 62 in model years.) See what she says later in the interview:

So is this the beginning of a career switch?
I’m thinking of slowing down on modeling and branching out to other things. I want to pursue some new and old dreams and start making them happen. House of Style is definitely just the start. I want to do television, film, music and designing. I want to do it all!


As the history books prove, modeling is a great segue into all of those things.

More Details on Saturday’s House of Style Premiere [Fashionologie]
Chanel Iman Makes Herself at Home in the New House of Style [Talking Fashion/Teen Vogue]

MTV’s New House of Style Is the House of Jelly Shoes and Friendship Bracelets