Rachel Zoe is famous — in certain circles — for many things, but transparency is not one of them. A celebrity fashion stylist, Ms. Zoe is known for her client list, which has included just about every pretty young thing in Hollywood — Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Keira Knightley, Joy Bryant, and, most auspiciously, Nicole Richie. Ms. Zoe is known for her fees, which can reportedly top $6,000 a day. And she is known for earning those fees by placing said starlets in a signature mix of Grecian dresses, sunglasses that might well be used after one’s pupils have been dilated, and heavy gold necklaces best complemented by a bony clavicle. (Ms. Zoe has been blamed by the celebrity press for the dramatic weight loss of some of her clients, particularly Ms. Lohan and Ms. Richie.)

So what is the secret to Ms. Zoe’s success? There may be one, but viewers should not look to Bravo’s “The Rachel Zoe Project,” the stick-figure stylist’s new reality show, for answers. The show, which makes its premiere tonight, chronicles the shopping excursions and sartorial dilemmas of Ms. Zoe’s career, and never seems sure whether to idolize or satirize the outlandish stylist. While the show may be a prescription for fashion junkies, giving them a practically pornographic spread of luxury labels, it fails to provide much insight into how exactly Ms. Zoe creates the red-carpet “wow” moment, as she calls it.