From strutting the "Runway" to pounding the fashion police beat

The pleasure in watching fashion-makeover shows is to realize that someone has way worst taste in clothing than you do. Take Karen, a 41-year-old mother who shows up to a PTA meeting baring cleavage. Her idea of casual? A pair of sweat pants that read "Juicy Bling" on her behind.

She needs someone to slap some sense into her, and everyone's favorite fashion guru, Tim Gunn, is just the dandy to do it. Gunn, who played second fiddle to Heidi Klum in "Project Runway," is now starring in his own program, "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" (10 p.m. Thursdays on Bravo). And we can only pray his words of wisdom impact America's wardrobe choices.

A cross between "What Not To Wear" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," each episode of "Gunn's Guide" dispatches the genial Gunn and the lively, ex-supermodel Veronica Webb into the closet of a walking Fashion Don't. And with the help of a nifty computer program, a "life coach" and Gunn's "essential wardrobe list" of 10 items, a Fashion Don't becomes a walking Wow! Nothing terribly groundbreaking here, except there's great joy to be had in seeing the looks of disgust crossing Gunn and Webb's elegant faces before the ugly duckling has been transformed. Also, some choice exclamations: "Beautiful bra face!" and, "You're less of a slut than you were before."

On to the seamier side of fashion in the documentary "Made In L.A." (10 p.m. Tuesday on KCTS), part of the always excellent "P.O.V" series on PBS. Three Latina garment workers, part of a group of 19 immigrants, take on the Forever 21 company in a fight for fair wages and better working conditions.

Yes, the film traces a David vs. Goliath narrative, but the poignancy here is how Lupe Hernandez, Maria Pineda and Maura Colorado are transformed as their three-year legal battle, beginning in 2001, unfolds. At one point Hernandez, who left her native Mexico City for Los Angeles at age 17, finds herself touring New York's Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Looking at a sewing machine and the meager living conditions from a century ago she sighs, "Everything's the same." And thus a fire is lit.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com