The first week of NBC’s new alternative fashion competition show “Fashion Star” left sold-out items at H&M and Macy’s online, offended female mentors and buyers, a colorful under-dog, and a burnt contestant all in the show’s first episode!

With any reality competition show, someone has to go home. In the first week it was designer and former Australian male model Nicholas Bowes. HOLLYWOOD JUNKET got the chance to talk to him in a phone interview about his experience on “Fashion Star” compared to real-world experience.

We also briefly talked to Macy’s buyer Caprice Willard who when asked why Bowes was labeled as not being able to provide a full line by the end of the season she said, “The purpose of the show is it to be a collaborative process between the designers and retailers”. She said that the fact that Nicholas wasn’t open to feedback and not the process, “I felt that he wasn’t going to be able to continue in the game”.

Listen to audio of our full interview below:

Typically, Bowes said designers don’t get the type of feedback that they get on “Fashion Star” from buyers. “There’s so many ways of getting in front of a buyer. One of the main things is to have a sales rep..have a showroom and you do the show. Usually at the show or show or at a meeting, you’ll converse with a buyer”.

When asked what is the advantage or disadvantage of they buyer feedback, Bowes stated “You’ve got everything that you need in the real world right there. And having to converse with the mentors is fantastic and also having the buyers there critiquing your work straight away is just unheard of. It’s a real positive to have that on the show. The biggest thing is knowing the whole process from start to finish. The designers coming out of school don’t really learn that in school. It’s something you learn with time and through experience.”

You can either design for mainstream, Middle America or you be true to yourself. You design what you want to design.” Bowes said that by being true to himself, he’s had some success. He said that with the leather jacket he’s been given the opprotunity to dress some celebrities and he designs what he likes “not what everyone else likes”.

Bowes stated that he does a lot of “high end” clothing designs. The bulk and main premise of “Fashion Star” is to create the next fashion icon and make clothing appealing to a wide market. So, we asked Bowes if “Fashion Star” was maybe not the right show for him? Bowes responded, “Good press, bad press, it doesn’t really matter… I’m sure once a lot of people see what I create, they’ll appreciate me a little bit more”.

“Fashion Star” airs on NBC Tuesday at 10/9 pm c