When Amazon’s runway-to-cash-register reality show “Making the Cut” debuted last year — just as the COVID-19 pandemic was profoundly reshaping the worlds of entertainment, fashion and retail — The Times’ TV editor came up with a novel idea. Since my seasonal jaunts to fashion weeks around the world to critique collections had been scuttled by coronavirus, why not review each “MTC” episode’s winning look — and recap the action along the way — to help fans, stans and armchair fashion critics decide what was worth clicking the “buy” button for? I was enthusiastically all in.
That first season saw a dozen designers whittled down — over 10 episodes — to crown L.A.-based designer Jonny Cota the winner of a million-dollar prize purse and a mentorship with Amazon Fashion. When episodes of the show’s sophomore season started dropping on Amazon Prime last month, the retail/fashion/television landscape looked eerily the same as it had the year before, so we decided to revive our reviews.
As you’ll read in the stories below, some parts of the show have changed but, with few exceptions, the ability to shop each episode — as in, buy the actual garments brought to life on screen — remains. And the sophomore season of “Making the Cut,” which started as a low-energy, less-than-exciting affair
