While waiting for What Not To Wear on Friday night, I caught the premiere of TLC's I've Got Nothing to Wear. It's the show in which three up-and-coming designers take various items from a -- let's just say it -- victim's wardrobe and cut and mix and match and sew everything into new garments. The concept sounded fantastic, especially to the artsy-fartsy types like me who love the DIY approach to fashion and enjoy cutting up old raincoats into evening wear or something.

So what's the problem?

The items the host picks out of the victim's wardrobe to be reconstructed are clothes that the person doesn't intend to wear anymore anyway. It's all the ugly, ill-fitting, out-dated crap from the closet. So when they say that their favorite color is black or they love shiny things, well, they're not going to get it because they wouldn't have thrown away their beloved black dress or favorite sequined muumuu (eww). Plus, the three designers are different every episode, so we witness no development or improvement and only see the two crappy outfits they come up with. This also means a lot of not-very-good designers get into the mix, because it's dozens of designers coming in per season, rather than a small number of people that stick around each cycle, like in Project Runway.

I suppose the program can be kind of fun to watch, but only to see what the designers are wearing, because they all seem to be the "fresh out of art school" types and those folks usually have interesting style. However, today's "fresh out of art school" type also seems to try and make everything into a bubble skirt or something else equally horrendous from the Urban Outfitters clearance racks. So if you're looking to refresh some ill-fitting clothes, go to the tailor, not TLC.

Sigh. Another perfectly good TV show concept wasted.