Running in Heels

Tonight the new fashion reality TV series Running in Heels aired on E4. The basic premise of the American reality show is the lives of three young girls moving to New York City to intern at international fashion magazine, Marie Claire.

As always with American imports, E4 has plugged the show massively with plenty of prime-time advertising and a healthy 10pm slot. The show is a mixture of real life and staged drama as the girls compete to win over editor in chief Joanna Coles, who pulls off spiky Brit in the US very nicely. While not a competition as such, the show does share similar elements with Elle magazine's own Stylista TV show that aired earlier in the year on Five.

Predictably the three interns fall into beautifully dressed stereotypes; Ashley is bitchy, ruthless one; Samantha is the out of town 'nice girl' while Talita is a ditsy fashionista from LA with a chihuahua named Chanel.

The first episode relied upon fairly a fairly basic format whereby the interns found themselves all sharing a flat, having clashing personalities and going about their tasks with a mixture of desperation and superiority, all while running round in their obligatory heels. There was jealousy over assigned tasks and a distinct Devil Wears Prada overtone when the interns were reminded one their first day that "thousands of girls would kill for your jobs".

While the main premise may be a tad predictable, what is very interesting to watch is how the rest of the team work together. The editorial team, fashion assistants and new fashion director, Nina Garcia are all featured and it is their relationships with one-another and day-to-day working life that may just have me tuning in for the second episode.

Image courtesy of Project RunGay.