Rachel Zoe Project Season 2 Finale Guest Recap

The Rachel Zoe Project season finale ended this Monday. I’ve already expressed how I was a little underwhelmed by this season, so I thought I’d get one of my awesome Twitter followers and pop culture scholar Elisa Kreisinger to help me out and give her thoughts. It’s a little more thinky than we usually get here, but it’s some great analysis of the finale!

The faux drama continued last night with the manufactured conflicts of Rachel’s health on the season finale of The Rachel Zoe Project. It seems convenient that her health problems crept up just in time to make her do something drastic with the future of her business…like give complete control of her company to her husband. But we should be happy! How often do we see a successful woman leading an empire on reality TV…never! Can women be smart, well dressed and lead a successful company? Of course! But that wasn’t Rachel Zoe. (FYI Bravo…an open market yet tapped)

Rachel’s real-life conflicts seemed abundant and alarming and thus, perfect for reality TV. But they were never fully explored. I have some suggestions: Rachel could have learned conflict management skills or learned how to take care of herself, or at least eat on camera. After all, the behind the scenes look at navigating the fabulous fantasy world of the fashion industry is really what made us tune in loyally. But Rachel is a real person and we want to see her struggle with real life issues.

But maybe we did see the real Rachel after all. You can’t fake worse social and communication skills. And while her ‘team’ always seemed to be in the same room with the same rack of clothes, the life of Rachel Zoe was out there for all to see…a daunting task for someone so outspokenly insecure. At yet that’s what it bread, more insecurity.

Rachel successfully leads a branding effort to turn more young women into Zoe-bots. Her daily e-blast ‘newsletter’ is more product placement than content…similar to her show. But let’s be honest, this isn’t a documentary, it’s a reality TV show with the power to inject product placement at every turn. Is there a record of such products in the vain of the “OMG” montage? From the obvious “Bing” ads to the sudden cutaways of Brad in the kitchen with nothing but a box of Kashi in focus, product placement was the main character and Rachel just decorated in nice clothes for advertisers to reach a coveted and always trustworthy consumer market: gay men and young women. What recession? More possessions!

While no one ate, the message was clear: communication skills, eye contact and a strong sense of self mean nothing if you’ve got a great bo-ho bag. The fabulous fantasy world of fashion rears its ugly head leaving us to blame someone else for eating disorders, black leggings and heels so high they should be used only as a weapon for self-defense. If that’s not liberation, what is?

Elisa is an artist living in Cambridge. Find out more about her work at her website Pop Culture Pirate

[Image: Bravo/NBC Universal]