After five seasons, Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project has finally come to an end. The sought after 41 year old celebrity stylist confirmed in Capitol File Magazine’s September cover story, “We’ve done five years. I think it’s time to probably move on.”
Zoe had been dissatisfied with the direction the reality show was taking, explaining, The Rachel Zoe Project was meant to be a show solely based on fashion and designers and all of that, and clearly it wasn’t.” She went on to exclaim “Oh, I don’t want my personal life on television.”
And this sentiment were clearly shared by viewers, as the shift in focus toward Rachel Zoe’s personal life caused ratings to plummet 40% since its debut in 2008, reaching an all time low during the last episode of season five.
We may be seeing a fimilar fate for Zoe’s former assistant Brad Goreski’s It’s a Brad Brad World, a spinoff created from The Rachel Zoe Project. With similarly low ratings, Bravo has yet to confirm the fate of the show.
As suggested by Fashionista, fashion reality TV is shifting focus away from traditional stylists, as fresh forms of street style and costume design, and fashion photography emerge. It may be that the interest created by the novelty of such shows will better enable fashion to remain the focus, without allowing uninteresting drama to overshadow the point of the program.