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"Fashion Star mentor John Varvatos has described the show&amp;#039;s host Elle Macpherson as &amp;quot;one of the most beautiful women&amp;quot; in the world.  The designer will work alongside Macpherson and fellow mentors Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie on the NBC design competition, which premieres Tuesday, March 13.    &amp;gt; Fashion Star mentor Nicole Richie: Designers should be themselves &amp;gt; Jessica Simpson: I take mentoring on Fashion Star very seriously Discussing his fashion icons in an NBC video, he said: &amp;quot;My icons are more past icons like Steve McQueen, growing up with Robert Plant and Jimmy Paige, the rock icon, that kind of thing. Those were kind of my muses when I started out, then the fashion icons today who kind of create their own style for sure.  &amp;quot;To me it&amp;#039;s not about being a follower, it&amp;#039;s about being a leader. It&amp;#039;s less about people in general than kind of the past and how I can bring that to the future, and in beauty, there are so many great, beautiful women out there.&amp;quot;  He added: &amp;quot;We have one of the most beautiful women in the world on this show, Elle. We were sitting on stage filming the first show and I leaned over to Nicole and said, &amp;#039;That&amp;#039;s why they call her a supermodel&amp;#039;.  &amp;quot;She is so articulate and smart and gorgeous. When you talk about beauty, that is enduring beauty, that&amp;#039;s amazing.&amp;quot; Fashion Star&amp;#039;s format will see Varvatos, Simpson and Richie offering guidance to the designer contestants as they battle to win a multi-million prize that will allow them to launch their collection in one of America&amp;#039;s top retailers.  Watch John Varvatos discuss Fashion Star below:   Following each weekly challenge, buyers from Saks Fifth Avenue, H&amp;amp;M and Macy&amp;#039;s will bid on the right to purchase and exclusively carry the designers&amp;#039; work. Any designer that does not sell their work will face elimination, although the mentors can save one contestant each week. Discussing what drew him to the show, Varvatos said: &amp;quot;It wasn&amp;#039;t being a judge, it was being behind the scenes and working with the designers to help navigate them through the treacherous waters of fashion. &amp;quot;Sometimes it&amp;#039;s tough to be tough on people, but I guess if you aren&amp;#039;t tough you won&amp;#039;t learn from it or get where you should be. I know through my career there have been moments when you were a little deflated about things or stores didn&amp;#039;t like what you had to show or Ralph didn&amp;#039;t like exactly what I was showing him. &amp;quot;Those are the moments that make you sit back more and make you think about what you are doing and how to raise your bar.&amp;quot; Fashion Star premieres Tuesday, March 13 at 9.30/8.30c on NBC  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/fashion-star/news/a369853/fashion-star-mentor-john-varvatos-elle-macpherson-is-enduring-beauty/>