Eye Candy : Cable Shows Find Fashion a Lure

It’s the respectable version of “Eye on L.A.”--same amount of skin but in a legitimate, even newsworthy guise.

That’s the crass male perspective on the various cable television shows that cover the worlds of fashion, beauty and design--programs that have generated a “never miss it” cult following that have made them among the most popular offerings on three separate cable networks.

Every Saturday, for example, a group of male film executives wake up early so they can get together in a home in Malibu to take turns on the Stairmaster and watch the 7:30 a.m. airing of CNN’s “Style With Elsa Klensch.” They, like the million or so other men who watch weekly, surely appreciate the fine fabrics and design. But what they really prize are the women of their dreams--the Claudia Schiffers and Naomi Campbells of the world--parading with legs bared, stomachs bared, breasts barely covered by some chiffon frock.

Women viewers--who make up about 60% of the fashion TV audience--are less philistine, but they clearly like the models too.

“Women love to see other beautiful women,” said Jeanne Beker, host of VH1’s weekly “FT--Fashion Television.” “They love to see variations on style. Not that you should go out and try to look like Cindy Crawford--who can? But you can borrow little things from them. That’s part of it. But it’s also great material for cocktail chatter. It’s great eye candy.”

Alisa Bellettini, producer of MTV’s “House of Style,” expresses similar thoughts. “We could say, ‘Cindy Crawford is going to sit here and eat cereal,’ and people would watch,” she said, referring to the show’s famous cover-girl host. “We do these great pieces on young designers or on the dangers of breast implants and I get letters asking, ‘Why can’t we see more of Cindy?’ Women see her as a kind of role model, and men--well, you know what they think.”

But for the producers of these three TV fashion shows, there’s more to it than exotic cheekbones and celery-thin thighs.

CNN’s Klensch, Bellettini said, “is the pioneer. I love Elsa. I would never miss her show.” Bellettini said she’s watched Klensch “since the beginning, since about 1985.” When informed that “Style With Elsa Klensch” actually dates to 1981 and was one of the first shows on the then brand-new Cable News Network, Bellettini sighed: “Shoot, I missed four whole years. I’m so depressed now.”

Klensch, a former fashion writer, pitched the show as a kind of video Vogue just after CNN began and, without altering her black pageboy, she has traveled Europe, Japan and the runways of New York ever since, showing the latest collections from likes of Armani, Chanel and Donna Karan.

Backstage, she quizzes the famed designers about such straightforward issues as long or short dresses, the “style for evening” and “the inspiration for the orange color scheme.” In terms of viewing clothes, Klensch said, her TV show is a major improvement over fashion magazines because she presents entire collections rather than just a still photo or two.

“And to me, the movement of the clothes and the way the colors work really does make television superior to what you see in the magazines,” Klensch said.

VH1’s “FT,” which is produced by City-TV in Toronto and also airs in Canada and 30 other countries, airs here Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m. and is seen by about 230,000 people in the United States each week. MTV produces six episodes of “House of Style” a year, each of which is seen by nearly 5 million viewers during the course of seven repeats. The three airings of each “Style With Elsa Klensch” episode--Saturdays at 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and Sundays at 3:30 a.m.--attract nearly 2.5 million viewers in the United States, making it one of CNN’s highest-rated weekend programs. Millions more watch it on CNN around the world. In Japan, Klensch said, she is constantly recognized on the street.

Klensch, who concedes that all three shows provide “great PR” to everyone they profile, said that several designers have taken television training courses and that several of the Europeans have studied English so that they come off better during TV interviews. They also are catering to TV’s need for what “FT” producer Jay Levine calls “a large sex appeal.”

“The fashion show is more of a show now,” Levine explained. “Before they would show clothes that they hoped people would buy. Now, for the benefit of TV, you see these wild clothes that no one would ever wear but reveal what the designer’s mind is capable of. It’s all for image, to get the name out there, which helps sell their other products like the perfumes and the accessories.”

While “FT” and “House of Style” are billed as entertainment shows on entertainment networks, this kind of “great PR” on CNN’s “Style” exists within an all-news network. Bob Furnad, CNN’s executive vice president, said that “it is fair” to say that “Style” runs counter to CNN’s mostly hard-news image.

But, he added, it is a show tailored for the weekend--when the pace of life is more relaxed--and even if it inevitably celebrates the merchants it profiles, the show “is still informational.” CNN airs critical reports on the fashion business during newscasts or on business programs like “Moneyline,” Furnad said.

The bottom line, he said, is that “not a lot of CNN programs attract product advertising. ‘Style’ does, and the more types of advertisers we have, the more potential dollars we have. If we attracted nothing but banks, we’d be in trouble.”

“Style” is the most decorous of the three shows. The others offer more dazzling, juiced-up segments designed to appeal to both the fashion aficionado and anyone who craves visual stimulation.

“FT” began in 1985 as a response to the fashion promotional videos that designers such as Norma Kamali were producing and sending to rock music or news programs in hopes of free publicity. Levine and Beker decided that by combining their own behind-the-fashion-scene footage and interviews, jazzy production values and a hint of titillation, they could produce a show of their own for syndication around the world. VH1, the only U.S. outlet, actually edits out some of the “more blatant naked boob shots,” Beker said, even though they are acceptable on Canadian or European TV.

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“We didn’t take an esoteric position,” said Beker, who added that her show falls somewhere in the middle between the straightforward “Style” and the hip, teen-age street-fashion of “House of Style” (or “House of Cindy,” as she calls it). “Elsa is talking about hemlines and shades, while we’re more into the personalities of the people who make the scene tick.”

For MTV, the home of music videos--which, more than anything else, according to Crawford, influences the styles and trends that young people actually wear--venturing into fashion was a natural. “House of Style” began several years ago as short segments on MTV’s newscasts, and Bellettini was put in charge, she said, “because I was the only girl news writer and they just naturally gave the fashion beat to the girl.”

Since the majority of those who watch TV’s fashion shows can’t afford most of the clothes being showcased, explaining how to copy the expensive look is a primary goal. “MTV viewers can’t afford Chanel, but they can knock off the Chanel look with a few fake chains and bows,” Crawford said.

“Before the new Armanis even hit the racks, they are being copied in Korea or Hong Kong,” said Klensch. “So even if you can’t afford Armani, the value of the show is that at least you know what the look is when you go into Sears to buy a less expensive outfit.”