Tackling Style With Tough Love

They call it tough love; some critics say it's more like television cruelty.

"What Not To Wear," the BBC's newest makeover show - which debuts on BBC America Tuesday night, Dec. 10 - sets two frank-talking fashion writers against a fashion victim who's challenged to change her style.

CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth reports the show begins with two women and a simple premise. Susannah Constantine and Trinny Woodall say the secret to looking good is brutal honesty about your defects, and learning to dress around it.

Each week in Britain, the show confronts a fashion victim, candid-camera style, and offers her $3,000 to spend on a new wardrobe - as long as she'll follow Constantine and Woodall's advice.

Now the BBC's bringing its makeover show to America, along with their message.

"Your best friends won't tell you the truth," says Constantine.

"But we're not your best friends, and we will," adds Woodall.

The pair say what's made their show successful is an approach to style that doesn't depend on expensive labels or cosmetic surgery or even crash diets. Instead, the message to women is that before they even think about fashion, they've got to understand physique.

"I think it's more teaching them to understand their body, to realize what they love and hate about it, and then to dress so that they show off what they love and feel confident about and hide what they don't like," says Woodall.

"So we're like a couple of clothing doctors and it's like, OK, your ailment is a big pair of breasts a very large bum and short legs. And this is how we're going to make it better," says Constantine.

And the way they do this is by being very tough, almost cruel.

"It's not," says Constantine. "You know what? That 'cruelty' comes from a great passion that Trinny and I both share. It's not looking down on a woman, it's not being patronizing. We just really want her to look her best."

The two have rules on what to wear for every body type and of course what "not" to wear.

In following the rules, they explained on a tour of London's Harvey Nichols department store, the shape of the shopper becomes a crucial element in deciding what to buy.

"An hourglass will always have a Jennifer Lopez bottom," Woodall says, demonstrating how to wear clothes to "get that Marilyn Monroe shape."

But Marilyn and J.Lo didn't really need all that much help from clothes, did they?

"I still think they could have had a bit of help," she adds.

According to these two, everyone can.

"We could go down to the men's department, should we have a little look?" asks Woodall.

The "What Not To Wear" rules, they say, apply to men, too - as they plan to demonstrate on TV next season.

"What Not To Wear" premieres Tuesday, starting Dec. 10, at 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. PT.