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Could style queens Trinny and Susannah be going out of fashion?
That's the question fashionistas and gossip columnists in Britain are grappling with amid rumours the dynamic duo's latest TV show is facing the axe.
Ratings for their Undress the Nation primetime series on British commercial broadcaster ITV
have slumped, prompting speculation that their contract might not be renewed.
While 2.5 million devotees are still tuning in, the numbers are a far cry from the seven million who watched their groundbreaking TV programme What Not To Wear on the BBC.
So is the novelty of watching two posh British women dolling out no-nonsense advice on skirts, tops and trousers _ not forgetting control-top underwear _ wearing thin?
When Susannah Constantine and Trinny Woodall toured New Zealand in March thousands of women flocked to see them at shopping malls throughout the country.
Similar numbers turn out in Britain whenever they hit towns to film their TV shows.
Their style books have been bestsellers, they've appeared on Oprah and run a successful online fashion business in between filming their TV shows.
When they made their onscreen debut in 2001, their brisk manner in overhauling women's wardrobes while groping plenty of breasts and bums was shocking and intriguing.
Their fashion guinea pigs were stripped to their underwear, stuffed inside a mirrored closet and told in no uncertain terms that their wardrobes were full of fashion mistakes. Big ones.
After the inevitable tears each guinea pig would hit the shops and buy a complete new wardrobe based on Trinny and Susannah's hard-nosed advice.
In most cases, their subjects ended up looking much better and went home happy.
The duo, who have amassed a 10 million ($27 million) fortune, ditched the BBC in 2005 and headed for ITV after being offered 1.2 million.
Their first project for ITV was Trinny and Susannah Undress, which combined fashion makeovers for couples with a bit of relationship therapy thrown in. This year their three-part series, The Great British Body, saw them strip naked with 900 other women in an attempt to discover the average shape of British women.
But getting their gear off did little for their ratings and viewers began switching channels.
Their latest offering, Undress the Nation, has different themes for each episode, such as how to get women to inject glamour into their wardrobes.
ITV says there will be a second series of Undress the Nation later this year, but the broadcaster has refused to confirm whether it will order any more.
The close-knit pair first teamed up in 1994 after meeting at a dinner party.
They spent seven years writing a weekly style guide for the upmarket Daily Telegraph newspaper before the BBC beckoned.
Trinny, 44, is the tall skinny half of the duo, who has struggled in the past with alcohol and drug addictions and describes her "tits" as "non-existent" and her legs as "short".
She is reportedly separated from financier Johnny Elichaoff, with whom she has a 4-year-old daughter.
Susannah, 46, is curvier and laid back. Married to Danish entrepreneur Sten Bertelson with three children, she professes to love her pert bum, wrists and ankles but not her "short and thick" neck, or "chunky" upper arms.
On their website, Trinny and Susannah sum up their philosophy as: "Looking stylish is not about following fashion, losing weight, being rich or succumbing to the knife.
"It's about dressing to show off what you love and hiding what you loathe about your body". The pair insist they are not concerned by how many people watch their shows or buy their books.
Instead, the ultimate accolade for them lies in "the many thousands of letters" they receive from women "who attest that their confidence, sex appeal and joie de vivre have been restored" thanks to the style queens.
Some observers believe Trinny and Susannah's fall in popularity comes amid a general backlash against reality television shows.
But the Guardian newspaper's deputy fashion editor Hadley Freeman argues part of their problem is that amid all their bluster and self-confidence, they fail to convince their makeover targets that they were once like them.
"Instead they come across as a gorgon-headed beast of matronly, imperious bossiness," he wrote recently.
The Independent's columnist Carola Long says while Trinny and Susannah's reluctance to promote cosmetic surgery is welcome, "their endeavours to move with the times by choosing to get under their subjects' skins psychologically rather than physically haven't been entirely successful".
"Perhaps it's just not such good entertainment anymore?"
Others believe the heart of the problem lies in the fact that Trinny and Susannah are a bit old-fashioned compared to new shows like How to Look Good Naked and Extreme Makeover.
How to Look Good Naked's star, Gok Wan, has won an army of fans in Britain and Australia, which he visited after Trinny and Susannah finished their tour this year.
His followers say they love his simple approach _ that all women are gorgeous and wearing clothes (especially trendy ones) can only enhance their loveliness.
While Trinny and Susannah want women to buy clothes which flatter their figures in high street shops, Gok is tuned into the latest trends and how women can get the latest catwalk looks at an affordable price.
But as the first in their field it would be unfair to write off Trinny and Susannah and their mission to improve women's wardrobes just yet.
"Ultimately, what we're doing is giving people confidence," Susannah said in an interview last year.
"We're probably the only people who have an opinion, who care how ordinary people dress. No one at Vogue magazine gives a shit."
- AAP
