Fashion isn't about personality. It isn't about depth, and it's certainly not about what's under the surface. So in the true spirit of la mode, we've decided to go ahead and judge books by their covers and pick the victors of the upcoming season of Bravo's Lifetime's Project Runway based on their hair, clothes, and general photo-friendly charisma. And the Top 3 are.... THE DARKHORSE: Ra'mon-Lawrence Coleman (top row, third from left) Peeking out from behind his competitors, the 31-year-old Chicago-based designer has a low-key but edgy style that says a lot without screaming for attention. We're guessing he'll start out slow and gradually up his game until he makes it to the top three.
It's not your imagination: Everyone on reality shows says "I'm not here to make friends." (At some time or another, many also claim to "step up," and I predict the continued popularity of "throw [someone] under the bus.") Anywho:
Tell us: Do these images calm your nerves about Project Runway's August 20th move to Lifetime? From left to right, for me, that would be a no, ahellllll no, and an ah, okay, there's our Tim Gunn. The sight of him with that outstretched arm does wonders for my confidence level. Can you imagine if the show had made the move without him? Shudder. Don't.
Lifetime's new promo for Project Runway features boatloads of Regular Folk superfans (they're just like us!) affirming one of life's most essential truths: We love Project Runway and would like it to just return already. August can't come soon enough. Not watching The Fashion Show is taking a lot out of us.
Hey, does anyone else go around imitating Tim Gunn by chirping "This worries me" instead of "This concerns me"? I've been doing it wrong. This worries me. But I'm not too concerned about it. "Good moan-ing, design-uhs!"
I love comic books. I have ever since I was 11, when Marvel sent all of their heroes off on a secret war that, as I remember, involved them beating each other up for 12 issues. And I'm the dude you see on the train reading a comic, when you stifle the urge to tell me to grow up. I think comics can and should be about anything and for everyone, regardless of age, creed, or gender. But seeing Project Runway's Tim Gunn on the cover of a Marvel comic, posing with Iron Man...I don't know.
Part of me thinks it's cool that Marvel is aggressively seeing to woo female readers with a book like August's Models Inc., which'll team up some female supporting characters, like Spidey's gal pal Mary Jane Watson, to solve a murder committed during New York Fashion Week. And in that sense, Tim Gunn is a perfectly valid choice for the cover. (I reserve the right to judge what it'll be like when Gunn uses Iron Man's suit to actually fight crime.) And given that President Obama's appearance in a Spider-Man book resulted in record sales, it's somewhat of a no-brainer to try.
But this is all starting to remind me of the gimmick comics of the '70s, when Superman would fight Muhammad Ali or meet the Beatles. Too much of this sort of thing eventually cheapens the characters, especially when they start going on adventures with the Harlem Globetrotters. If the Tim Gunn appearance works, and new readers start picking up comics, then huzzah. But if not, it's a slippery slope.
What about you? Is Tim Gunn and comics like chocolate and peanut butter or arsenic and old lace?
Maybe we waited too long for Project Runway to get out of legal limbo. Maybe the genre is simply oversaturated. Maybe fashion just seems too frivolous in these terribly serious times. For whatever reason, news that MTV is starting its own sartorial series, The Stylist, gets us none too excited. Could it be that clothes just don't do it for us anymore?
First came the Runway doldrums, as we watched our once-favorite reality series sit in the amber of a legal morass like a fossilized bug. It's Bravo's! No, it's Lifetime's! No, there's a lawsuit! We all know how it ended: Lifetime won and is bringing the show back in August (relive some of Runway's glory with the clip embedded below). Then Bravo announced that it would start its own competing series: The Fashion Show with Isaac Mizrahi, Kelly Rowland, and Fern Malis, premiering May 7. (And at first blush, it looks about as close to Runway as Hayley Mills does to Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap.) Now MTV wants in, and frankly, it seems like a stitch too many.
Plus, doesn't it all seem a little...silly? Especially now? Either we can't afford new clothes, or it seems imprudent to give our credit cards that kind of workout. Or is that the point? Should we embrace these shows because they're empty calories, fun little distractions from layoffs, swine flu, and pirates? What do you think, Pop Watchers? Is fashion in, or is it out?
Boy, does Bravo seem to be feeling the void left by Project Runway. First there was The Fashion Show. Now there's Launch My Line. As my colleagues reported earlier today, the network is developing a new competition series, originally called Celebrity Sew-Off, in which bona fide fashion designers team up with "pop culture notables" who dream of, yes, launching their very own line of clothing. So how do we feel about this?
Well, first of all, they were right to change the title. Celebrity Sew-Off sounds like a show about famous people crammed in a sweatshop, competing over who can insert an invisible zipper the fastest. Riveting! And since the aspiring Marc Jacobs in question aren't likely to be the kind with off-the-charts Q scores -- stylists, music producers, and choreographers are among those Bravo has mentioned as possible contenders -- it's probably wise to just drop the whole "celebrity" conceit altogether, mmm-kay?
But anyway...the show. It has potential, I think. As we know, the fashion world is full of outsized, bitchy, backstabbing personalities tailor-made (ugh -- no pun intended, honest!) for the tube. And the thought of their egomaniacal head-trips going up against the equally staggering self-importance of celebri -- sorry, pop culture notables -- makes for some seriously juicy drama. Most celebrities have such an inflated sense of themselves that they think there's no limit to what they can offer the world. And goodloooord do some of them have hideous fashion sense. The workroom showdowns could be epic, I tell you! Picture it: Lisa Rinna, say, screams at Anna Sui, "Bitch, I said I wanted fringe on that acid-wash mini-dress, not sequins!!!" (That's a pure fantasy, by the way. There's no reason to believe either of those two women will be on the show...at least not yet!)
Buuuut, it's for similar reasons that I'm not totally on board with Launch My Line. Do we really need another forum for rich people to feed their already swollen egos? Should we be encouraging their delusions of grandeur? For every true renaissance man or woman (think Justin Timberlake), there's a J. Lo: someone who tries to conquer the world and ends up verging on obsolete. And between Stylista, Running in Heels, and all those makeover shows out there, aren't we running dangerously close to beating this whole fashion thing into the ground one too many times?
When the settlement announcement popped up in my inbox this afternoon, I was surprised. In February, it wasn't looking like a speedy resolution was in the cards. But here we are, potentially just weeks away from listening to Heidi chirp, "Designers, are you ready for your next challenge?" This is all terrific news, of course -- especially for the season 6 designers, who have gotten royally screwed by this legal standoff. And we needn't cry for Bravo. Yes, the network lost its flagship show, but it also pocketed a chunk o' change from The Weinstein Co. And certainly, it's no coincidence that mere hours before announcing the Runway settlement, Bravo released a statement trumpeting their replacement series, The Fashion Show, which debuts May 7. The only question is, will the Lifetime Runway hold as important a place in our tender, obsessive hearts as it once did? Is there a chance it -- horrors! -- will feel passé? Me, I choose to err on the side of optimism. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go uncork some of my fiercest bubbly.
Can a television show exist in a vacuum? (And no, I don't mean in, like, the dusty bag of a Hoover. But that would be cool, too. Especially if David Lynch did it.) That's what I kept asking myself this morning as I sat watching the Project Runway season 6 finale in one of those giant tents at Bryant Park. As you all undoubtedly know, the sixth cycle of the one-time hit show has been stuck in legal limbo since last spring, when producer Harvey Weinstein decided to move the show from Bravo to Lifetime. NBC Universal (which owns Bravo) then sued Weinstein. A few months later, Weinstein countersued. Then, because they didn’t want to be left out of all the fun, Lifetime sued, um, everyone. Thanks to the legal melee, season 6 has yet to air and no one has a clue as to when (or if?) it will. But since Fashion Week only happens twice a year, the series’ producers decided to go ahead and shoot the finale anyway.
Needless to say, none of the designers stepped onto the runway to introduce their collections, thank their moms, or shed tears of exhaustion/joy. Nope. Heidi Klum said a few words, acknowledging that the day was “a little bit sad for the designers,” thanked everyone for coming (no prob, Heidi! Any time!), then uttered her usual “Let’s start the show.” There were three collections, which, taken together, could easily have made one big mega-collection. Now, considering that a big part of each season is the season finale ta-da! reveal of each designer’s work, the similarities between the designs is, in fact, a veerry lucky thing for Runway producers intent on maintaining some level of secrecy. (And I’ve been told that the contestants were given no special instructions that would make their pieces come out looking like siblings.) But for me, it was kind of strange. I kept wondering why I couldn’t get a sense of the designers’ individual voices, or if I just thought that because it’s impossible to have an emotional investment in the collections without knowing who’s behind the seams. Who are these poor, anonymous souls who have toiled away for months on their dream duds? There were lots of very pretty chunky sweaters, metallics, silky tops, and skinny pants parading on by me this morning. But true Wow! moments? Sadly, in short supply.
So, you Runway fans, what are your feelings about the “lost season”? Do you miss the show? Are you worried that when (or if!) it ever comes back it will feel dated? Were producers right to move ahead with production, even with a lawsuit looming?
All this Fashion Week talk has me singing the Project Runway blues. I know Bravo's trying to cheer me up by releasing details about its new fashion-contest series, but it's not really working.
Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland will be cohosting and judging The Fashion Show, whose title could use a little work. It's...pretty on the nose, guys. Fern Mallis, "fashion luminary" and senior vice president of IMG Fashion (and occasional guest judge on PR), will be the other judge. To quote Bravo's release: "The Fashion Show follows professional designers as they strive to make their mark in the dog-eat-dog world of fashion and compete for a chance to have their designs sold for the mass retail market. The designers will face off in challenges and have their fate determined not only by the professional judges, but also by a studio audience. In the end, the winner will have their designs available for sale by a major retail outlet." Ooooh, involving the studio audience. I can only assume this will be either America's Funniest Home Video–style (vote with a gizmo at your seat) or Showtime at the Apollo–style (vote by applause). Given that Isaac Mizrahi apparently thinks peanut M&Ms are vegan, maybe the judges can use all the help they can get.
Part of me wants to say, "Yay, bring on the clothing contests -- the more the merrier!" This sounds totally acceptable, and Bravo is the Play-Doh Fun Factory of creative-type reality shows. But I am profoundly unable to get psyched about this. I just want to scream, "You're not my mommy fashion competition!" and run away. Give it to me straight, snapcracklePopWatchers: Is The Fashion Show going to make it work? Or are we looking at next season's glaring Don't?
I love comic books. I have ever since I was 11, when Marvel sent all of their heroes off on a secret war that, as I remember, involved them beating each other up for 12 issues. And I'm the dude you see on the train reading a comic, when you stifle the urge to tell me to grow up. I think comics can and should be about anything and for everyone, regardless of age, creed, or gender. But seeing Project Runway's 
Boy, does Bravo seem to be feeling the void left by Project Runway. First there was The Fashion Show. Now there's Launch My Line. As my colleagues 
Put your hands together, Project Runway fans, because this is no April fool's joke. At long last, our beloved show is free from the chains of ugly, drawn-out lawsuits and will air on Lifetime this summer. The Weinstein Company, NBC Universal, and Lifetime have settled. Hurrah! 
Can a television show exist in a vacuum? (And no, I don't mean in, like, the dusty bag of a Hoover. But that would be cool, too. Especially if David Lynch did it.) That's what I kept asking myself this morning as I sat watching the Project Runway season 6 finale in one of those giant tents at Bryant Park. As you all undoubtedly know, the sixth cycle of the one-time hit show has been stuck in legal limbo since last spring, when producer Harvey Weinstein decided to move the show from Bravo to Lifetime. NBC Universal (which owns Bravo) then sued Weinstein. A few months later, Weinstein countersued. Then, because they didn’t want to be left out of all the fun, Lifetime sued, um, everyone. Thanks to the legal melee, season 6 has yet to air and no one has a clue as to when (or if?) it will. But since Fashion Week only happens twice a year, the series’ producers decided to go ahead and shoot the finale anyway.
All this Fashion Week talk has me singing the Project Runway blues. I know Bravo's trying to cheer me up by releasing details about its new fashion-contest series, but it's not really working.
