The new season of Project Runway premiered last night and proved to be just as addictive as the Bravo version and actually less hampered down by the overbearing Bravo brand and its annoying “I’m speaking emphatically into a loudspeaker” announcer. Project Runway’s catwalk run on the Lifetime network will serve the channel well by funneling the ever-forceful gay audience right into its tear-soaked laps. What was once just a network for hormonal women looking for a bad movie and a good cry now has some street cred. Well, whatever street cred Project Runway bestows. It certainly has more cultural cred in the form of severely amped up ad dollars. This is good news for all. I might not have to shudder when I see the Lifetime logo on the corner of my screen. More on the network ratings coup here.
- Heidi Klum and Tin Gunn of Project Runway
Cue show. Unexpected, quiet intro that showcases the real stars of the show. Ahh, Heidi and Tim. It’s curious to note the heft of Heidi and Tim on Project Runway. Bravo’s replacement fashion show, called umm, The Fashion Show, was literally a carbon copy of PR with a new name and different hosts, yet aficionados pooh-pahed over the “ghetto” PR and waited patiently for the real deal. (And we waited a long time. The lag time between shooting and airing was evidenced by the painfully anachronistic guest judge, Lindsay Lohan.) Now that the day has arrived, it seems the familiarity was all we were looking for. What do Heidi and Tm really add to the show except a few key catch phrases? Are we really such a nation of sheep that we yearn for a accented “You’re out” to pique our interest? It appears so. Isaac Mizrahi pretty much stole Tim Gunn’s personality for The Fashion Show with a wrist flip and a ”Make it work,” yet we turned our noses up at the imposter. It seems we are simpletons, yet very picky simpletons.
Last night’s premier introduced the Season 6 cast of designers and debuted a new locale for PR—Los Angeles. Slate commentator Troy Patterson qualifies (decries?) this change as a dumming down of the fashion and a kowtow to stupid Americans who might be more inclined to speak the language of the L.A. red carpet fashion than the pretentious (and mean) New York scene. Whatever the reason, it’s weird. I no likey. Even the contestants pause to give notice of the switch. But with the exception of a stripmall-esque trip to Mood, you hardly notice the new digs.
As fas the contestants go, I have to say that I am bored. Yawn. They got rid of the most out-there designer right off the bat. Ari was a wack-job, no doubt about it, but part of the appeal of PR is that avergae joes and janes get to scoff at the embarassing interpretative crap that comes from fashion “entreprenuers.” Of course her shiny smock was inappropriate, but Qrystal (umm, really?) produced a much worse offense—a hideously tacky dress. The rest of the contestants seem drab and uninterested, and there seems to be no clear drama queen yet. And let’s be clear: without a drama queen, this is a home-ec assignment.
Still from Project Runway © 2009 Lifetime Entertainment Services. All rights reserved.
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