When “What Not To Wear,” a fashion makeover show starring stylists Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, first aired on TLC in 2003, the two of us were in the midst of our high school years — smack dab in the middle of style self-discovery and anxiety. If anyone yearned for clear-cut style guidelines, it was us.
Clint and Stacy were funny, beautiful, and cool; two fashion experts in their early 30s. They seemed genuinely invested in helping people dress better, but the show was… of the moment. “What Not To Wear” was a makeover show with a healthy dose of humiliation and fatphobia, baked into each episode’s very structure. The ambush! The 360-mirror! The snarky voiceover! And then there were the stringent rules that stuck with us for decades, like how a woman should never wear horizontal stripes, lest she appear wider than she really is. The aughts were an era of vigilant body policing — taut midriffs good, mom jeans bad — and fashion “rules” were just o…
