Anna wins the first -- and possibly last -- 'Fashion Show' crown

SUSAN PIERCE: Anna McCraney, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, took home the crown as the first winner of Bravo's "The Fashion Show."

She may prove to be the only winner as underwhelming as the reality show's ratings were. Each of its first six weeks, fewer than 1 million viewers tuned in, according to Nielsen results.

The show was rarely a blip on Entertainment Weekly's radar, other than the magazine's recent comment that Kelly Rowland's single, "When Love Takes Over," almost made them forgive her for co-hosting "The Fashion Show."

LISA DENTON: There really didn't seem to be any momentum building for the finale. After Reco was robbed in the next-to-last episode, the climax was, well, anti-climactic. I'm not sure anybody cared who won after that.

Considering that "The Fashion Show" was cut whole cloth from the "Project Runway" pattern, it'll be interesting to see how "Runway" fares when it re-emerges Aug. 20. The show's new bosses at Lifetime Television are certainly trying to make a splash. The network is preceding the debut with an "All-Star Challenge," a two-hour contest between eight designers from the five previous Bravo seasons, and following it with "Models of the Runway," a peek behind the scenes from the models' perspective.

I'm not sure whether it was "The Fashion Show's" too-similar premise, the drab judges or the unsympathetic contestants but, as Isaac Mizrahi would say, I just wasn't buying it, darling.

SUSAN: I liked Anna's collection and thought it was very marketable in its color and shaping, but I still feel like she should have been competing against Reco and Daniella instead of James-Paul and Daniella. Evidently many other fans agreed, judging by the comments Isaac read from viewers.

To have been so vocal during the episodes, Reco seemed quite restrained during the finale/reunion show. His withdrawn attitude made me think he might be carrying a chip on his shoulder over his exclusion from the finalists.

LISA: I also thought he was uncharacteristically subdued. Maybe he considered the reunion show a waste of time since there was nothing to be gained by being there. That is one thing you can say about Reco. His fellow contestants didn't have to wait until the recap to know how he felt about them.

As much as producers tried to pit Reco and Daniella against each other in the early episodes, it really was a letdown for Reco not to be in the running at the end.

I think that's part of what threw the show off-track. Rather than having three designers creating "real fashions for real women," we were left with Anna and Daniella, who pretty much hit the mark, and James-Paul, who seemed to be designing for creatures from another planet.

SUSAN: I really detested James Paul's collection. Its black-and-gray layers were depressing. Its layers and hoods were bulky and looked unstructured. Those hooded faces and draped layers made me think of an Ewok funeral.

And the idea that any woman would unbutton her skirt to pull forward and use as a "gathering" apron is totally ridiculous. The only gathering I do is with a Bi-Lo cart.

LISA: Yes, it was all very strange. I thought Anna's designs were very wearable and pretty, and Daniella's did have a youthful edge. She got a lot of praise from the judges about incorporating shoulder pads -- never mind that many looked like they were made of rubber and were on the outside of the garment.

That was the disconnect between how the show started out and how it ended up. "Project Runway" has always been about cutting-edge couture, not wearable fashion. "The Fashion Show" billed itself as ready-to-wear but couldn't resist the runway. Ultimately that was a design viewers just weren't sold on.