What Not to Wear Gets Italian Treatment

LONDON, October 20: BBC
Worldwide has sold the hit format What Not to Wear to Italy’s Magnolia to produce a local version of
13 hour-long episodes for the Discovery Real Time Channel under the title Ma
come ti vesti?!, which translates
as What Are You Wearing?

Carla Gozzi and Enzo
Miccio will host the Italian version, which will feature unknowing fashion
victims being secretly filmed and chastised by their friends and family for
their bad taste. Gozzi and Miccio will then present the individual to face
their own reflection and highlight what’s wrong with their outfit, but unlike
its British counterpart, the show will not require that the subject strip down
to their underwear in front of the 360-degree mirror.

Gozzi commented: “Italy is
famous for its fashion houses and style but, like the U.K., there are lots of
people who have very bad dress sense! Fashion is not just frivolity or about
outward appearance, it also has an effect on the individual’s personality. I am
looking forward to working on the show with Enzo. I think we are a pair that
can rival the original Mica and Lisa!”

Francesca Canetta, the
director of Magnolia, said: “We have always loved What Not to Wear since it first aired on the BBC! The real appeal of
the show is not the fashion, but that it is a program about real people and
helps them to become more confident in their everyday life. It’s funny and
touching and, we are sure Italian women will love it!”

Canetta continued: “We are
very proud to be the Italian producer of this extremely successful format and
we look forward to working with BBC Worldwide on many more exciting projects.”

Claudia Danser, the head
of format licensing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at BBC Worldwide,
added: “What Not to Wear is a
very versatile format which can suit many different countries, even one of
Europe’s most stylish countries! I think that the mix of fashion, presenters’
personalities and of course, the personal stories and emotional individual
transformations makes the show a winner with viewers in the U.K. and abroad.
Our formats business is growing all the time, with new in-house formats being
developed as well as an increase in our scripted formats so our catalogue has
never been stronger.”

The What Not to Wear format has already been sold to Norwegian
broadcaster SBS, Australia’s Channel 7, SABC in South Africa and CTC in Russia.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski