Next in Fashion, Netflix, review: Not your standard fame-hungry reality contestants

Alexa Chung and Tan France present this excellent series about fashion designers battling for a lucrative Net-a-Porter contract

Tan France and Alexa Chung present Netflix series Next in Fashion

January 29, 2020 7:20 pm(Updated July 10, 2020 4:41 pm)

Next in Fashion, Netflix ★★★★

One of my biggest problems with Netflix is its obsession with commissioning by algorithm. If it’s popular, do more of it! Sure, it’s successful but it can also be tedious for the viewer.

Nor does bigger always mean better. Chef’s Table was a louder, flashier and less charming version of MasterChef: The Professionals, while the less said about Nailed It, a bizarre Great British Bake-Off imitation, the better.

All of which leads me on to Next in Fashion. Presented by Alexa Chung and Tan France, it is a reality show in which 18 designers compete for the chance to have their collection stocked on high-end retail site Net-a-Porter.

Yes, I thought, this is just a Project Runway knock-off, isn’t it? And I was wrong. Rather than focus on the drama and the petty squabbling, as Bravo’s long-running catwalk contest did, Next in Fashion celebrates craftsmanship. It is also more aware than Project Runway ever was, with plus-size models and reflections on sustainability.

One of the contestants gets to work in Netflix series Next in Fashion

Chung and France have an easy chemistry, joking around as though they’ve known each other all their lives.

There is also real fashion talent involved: weekly judges include Christopher Kane, Phillip Lim and Tommy Hilfiger.

Read More:

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Lab on Netflix is big on odd ideas, but shaky on science

I was gripped by the tension – the race to get each outfit made in just two days – and in seeing the difference between ambitious conception and runway creation.

Most of all, though, Next in Fashion works because these are not your standard fame-hungry reality contestants but exciting designers hoping for a break in a tough world. As the series progressed, I found myself really caring about all of them. Could anyone stop Angel and Minju, whose ethereal clothes proved that fashion is its own beautiful language? Would minimalist Hayley and maximalist Julian make it through an episode without tearing each other apart over creative differences?

Within a day I’d devoured the whole thing. That’s the thing about algorithms – they get us all in the end.