‘What Not to Wear’ Breaks with Show Policy in a Major Way

As I wrote Monday, this week marked the return of TLC's "What Not to Wear," with two episodes airing back to back last night, both featuring truly memorable moments.

In that first episode, we met Jodi (above, in what hosts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly described as her "Tron's Hooker" look). Jodi is a classic "WNTW" type: a middle-aged single mother who dresses in a way that's inappropriate for her age, and can't figure out why she hasn't met a nice man when she's been out in her pink track pants from the Juniors department. Oh — and she's also way too attached to her out-of-date, too-long hairstyle and will only allow stylist Ted Gibson to make a tiny change.

When it came to her big reveal with Kelly and London, Jodi couldn't agree with them that she looked better in her new clothes, and generally seemed so depressed about the whole thing that the show's hosts made an unprecedented move: They gave her the option of taking back her old wardrobe, and giving up her new, more appropriate clothes for them to donate to charity, returning home to Minneapolis without undergoing the transformation that her daughters, who'd nominated her for the show, wanted for her. The show cut to commercial as Jodi pondered her options...but ultimately, she decided to stick with her new look. And why shouldn't she, when she looked this good?

The next episode featured Rebecca, who's another classic "What Not to Wear" type. Having grown up tall and consequently never thought she was pretty, Rebecca sidestepped the whole issue of attractiveness by sticking pretty much exclusively to clothing emblazoned with her favorite animal: turtles. And, look. We all have our quirks. Most of us haven't devoted a whole room in our homes to our 2000-piece turtle collections. How crazy was Rebecca pre-makeover? So crazy she inspired Clinton to write a song about her.