Fashionclick^®  Interview  

covering the late  70’s rock scene. In 1979, she worked on a magazine show called "The New Music" which, pre-MTV, was considered quite a ground-breaker. The show focused on the behind-the-scenes world of rock 'n' roll. "We went on the road and into the studios with the stars to find out about the faces behind the music."

But as the show continued, Beker became increasingly tired of the rock scene "and searching for the next big thing." By then, it was the mid-80’s and fashion executives were beginning to think strong visuals and videos in particular could do for their industry what rock videos had done for the music world. When Jeanne and her team took a look at the videos they found them to be quite cool and came up with the idea of putting them on TV for
a new type of show.

"I was much more interested in who the designers were. It seemed to me that with their huge egos, just like rock stars, designers would make for great television, and that proved to be true."

"Now there is a plethora
of fashion/entertainment shows but we like to think we pioneered the idea. We weren’t the first to put fashion on TV, of course. Elsa (Klensch) came out with her show a couple of years before we did but she is very journalistic and no-nonsense in her approach; we are pretty irreverent (laughs); and we like to keep our sense of humor."

When did Fashion Television start?

We started in 1985 as a series of one-hour specials. A year later, we went to a full series or 39 half-hour episodes a year.

How many countries see the show?

Around 130 worldwide. It is carried on various satellite systems so it’s hard to gauge exactly how many. We are on Star TV in Southeast Asia, for instance, Sky throughout Europe, VH-1 in the U.S., also Canada, Australia, Scandinavia. Even Bulgaria loves us.

How has the show changed through the years?

Well, you know what they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. What we did from the start worked pretty well so we really haven’t veered too much from the initial idea. Because there are so many shows now that cover the collections the same way we do, with backstage bits and pieces from models and designers, we try to find a different angle.  Like today at the Betsey Johnson show, we decided to present it through the eyes of a psychologist who has written a wonderful book on beauty. And once we went to a London show with a rabbi just for an outsider’s perspective on fashion as a religious experience (everybody around is laughing by now). He was a little offended but it wasn’t too bad.

One season I took John Simon (New York Magazine theater critic) to a fashion show so he could talk about its theatrical aspects. Fashion is much more than what you wear; it’s an attitude, a kind of aesthetic, a scene and that’s what we’re after.