Fellow Houstonian Wins Reality Show

I don't watch much television, but my wife does, and she was watching the finale of Bravo's Project Runway, a competition for fashion designers, last night.

If memory serves me, there were three finalists. I watched two of their presentations, that of the eventual winner and that of the favorite, after my wife said of Chloe Dao, "She's from Houston." And despite what some might say, clothing that actually looks good deserves to win. Chloe Dao's designs were a breath of fresh air. Those of Santiago, or Mr. S., or whoever he was, were the same old pretentious junk you see all the time at fashion shows.

Ms. Dao did quite well for herself in terms of contest winnings.

As owner of Lot 8 boutique in Rice Village, Dao was one of three finalists on the reality show. Collections by Dao, Vosovic and Santino Rice were shown at New York Fashion Week in February.

Dao receives $100,000 to launch her own clothing line, a $24,000 Saturn vehicle, a spread in Elle magazine and a mentorship with Banana Republic. [link added, via KTRK]

Note that, unlike so many people who enter reality show competitions, she did not go in half-cocked, hoping for some show to "make her". She was already running her own business. In fact, according to its web site, she has been running it for five years in a fashionable part of town.

Lot 8 opened its doors in the summer of 2000, and over the course of 5 years, the boutique has established itself as one of Houston's premiere shops. The boutique draws a diverse clientele of local celebrities, fashion stylists, club crawlers, brides to be and modern career women. Lot 8's success stems from the boutique's mix of edgy sportswear, sexy cocktails dresses, and modern eveningwear at affordable prices.

The secrets to Chloe Dao's success have been passion, hard work, and perseverance. This is from her bio.

At the age of 10, Chloe Dao got her first taste of fashion from watching "Style with Elsa Klensch." on CNN. Fashion, of course, was not in the future plans for this Vietnamese immigrant family. Chloe's hard working parents, Thu Thien Dao and Hue Thuc Luong brought their eight daughters to the United States from Pakse, Laos in 1979 seeking a better life for the family. Like typical parents, they wanted Chloe the sixth child and the other daughters to pursue careers in law or medicine. Instead, Chloe and her two younger sisters devoted every Sunday morning to watching the latest runway shows from around the world. Each episode inspired and evoked her passion for design. Chloe's creative mind and fingers found its way into her father's garage where she made jewelry out of screws and washers. As her passion grew, she started to redesign her own clothes and special finds from vintages shops. Sewing came naturally as Mrs. Luong was a seasoned tailor. By her senior year of high school, she sewed her first garment from scratch, a royal blue satin strapless gown with beads and lace trim for prom.

Not wanting to disappoint her parents, Chloe kept her dream of becoming a fashion designer to herself and enrolled in the Business Marketing program at the University of Houston. She felt if she could not be a designer; she could still be in the industry as a buyer. One and a half years of boredom and misery in marketing drove Chloe to drop out and enroll in the design program at Houston Community College. She could no longer deny herself from her dream despite the lack of emotional support from her parents and siblings. And with one semester of design classes under her belt, she traveled to New York with a classmate to check out the Fashion Institute of Technology and never returned home. One week's vacation blossomed into a career of eight years in the heart of Fashion Avenue.

So if she becomes a household name down the road, don't be fooled. I'm sure the contest will have helped, but I think she would have found a way to succeed regardless.

As an amusing aside, this fact annoys the bejesus out of one run-of-the-mill leftist entertainment reporter who would rather indulge a "magical" view of success than see the real deal on, of all things, a reality television show.

Toward the end, however, Ms. Dao's new peppiness seemed too put-on, as if it were just a ploy. ''If I win, this is gonna be a real business,'' she proclaimed. ''Bottom line.'' Yuck. Chloe, this isn't the real world; it's a reality show (and not even The Apprentice). Go take your due diligence and professionalism to Madison Avenue or something. Reality TV's about easy street; it's for slackers looking for a simple way out (and up) or for lofty dreamers without any practicality. Seriously, I was waiting for Chloe to bust out her copy of Atlas Shrugged and start spewing forth the gospel of free enterprise. [HT: Randex]

Asshat. You wouldn't know the pride that comes from a sense of accomplishment if it hit you in the face. Now. Go to the powder room and take care of that gusher of a nose-bleed.

On a personal note, the bits about keeping her dreams secret from people who wouldn't understand them and the "one and a half years of boredom and misery" strike a chord; and Chloe Dao's eventual triumph is an inspiration. And no. I don't mean the contest win. That was symbolic. Chloe Dao was already living her dream of being a designer before Project Runway ever began. I was just lucky enough to see her reach a milestone.

-- CAV