Count Down to Project Runway

Yes, dahlings. I intend to snark about this show once or twice per month. First aired epi: November 14th, 10 PM EST. Meanwhile, enjoy the Canadian PR version on YouTube (you can find the first four episodes there). It is a bit tame, but I do so adore Iman, a knowledgeable hostess who's unafraid to bare her fashion fangs. This last cut of Marie Genevieve left me bereft, though I was only able to read a recap of it. I thought girlfriend was going all the way. (You know what I mean.)

Dayum, Tim's Leaving Parson's

He'd better stay with Project Runway

I'd feel so naked on the show without him.

Like an empress without her clothes.

Whatever would I do?Vanity Fair Photo, Pamela Hanson

I need a job and I know fashion! Pick me to replace him if he goes. Pick Meeee!

Noooo. Pick Meeee!

A link to the Women's Wear Daily announcement can be found here.

Is Michael Kors a Great Designer?

Check out this link at Slate Magazine and find out what Author Josh Patner has to say in Michael Kors: He's a great Project Runway judge. But is he a great American designer?

At the end of the article, find two other links to Project Runway. The fun just gets funner!

Podcast Junkie: Rating Tim Gunn's Project Runway Podcasts

I listen to my Ipod every day as I walk my energetic terrier an hour in the morning and after work. Within months of its purchase, I found myself listening to the same songs from my CD collection over and over again. At the same time I missed catching the morning and evening news. So I began searching for a variety of free sources of music, news, and entertainment.

I am now a Podcast Junkie. At the start of each week I download 15-18 hours of podcasts into my Ipod. I might take 3-5 days to listen to my selections, which include NPR shuffle, Slate Magazine, Real Time with Bill Maher, Grey’s Anatomy, Tim Gunn’s Podcast, Dog Whisperer, The Lonely Planet—you get the drift. Name a topic, including book titles, and I’ve probably downloaded it!

For the techie neophyte, here's another nice feature about podcasts: You don't have to download a podcast into your MP3 player in order to hear it. Select an episode, double click on the words, and listen while you work on your computer.

In Podcast Junkie I'll be critiqueing my favorite podcasts using the following rating system:
Two ear buds: Highly Recommended
One ear bud: Ok, but needs improvement
No ear bud : Don’t bother downloading

My first podcast analysis is about Tim’s Take, a Project Runway podcast by the inestimable Mr. Gunn.

Tim’s Take

Download Frequency: Once a week, after the last new Project Runway broadcast . Archives of Series 2 & 3 can still be downloaded from http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway. (PR One is not available in podcast form. )

Podcast Duration: Variable, up to an hour

Content: Tim’s analysis of the designers and the results of that week’s challenge. (Click here to listen to a sample from PR2, Episode 2, Clothes Off Our Back Episode.)

My Critique: This is Tim Gunn at his best, recapping Project Runway shows and adding colorful details to the design challenges that are absent from the taped show. In addition, Tim’s expert judgment and analysis about the design process and fashion provides valuable insight about each episode, inadvertently (or deliberately) revealing his relationship with the designers. We also learn what really goes on behind the scenes with the judging.

Rating: Two Ear Buds

Lolly Peppered, Part Deux

Just when you think things can't get worse, Lolly has whipped up more fashion-trocities. Remember the audience's reaction to this Wendy Pepper peeka-boobs original at Fashion Week? (Project Runway Season One)












Lolly must've mistaken their horrified expressions for ecstatic approval, 'cause she recently designed another peeka-boobs top, only this one is for the gravity challenged.

























Rorschac Test Dress























Dishrag Dress























Hanging Swag dress. Yikes! I think the model's gonna puke.
























Even Lolly gagged when she saw this mess and yelled at her model for "Not working it!"









But have no fear, gentle reader, if La Pepper's fashion career fails to take off, she's already proven her mettle in the party business.

Lolly Peppered

Which outfit would you purchase: The one designed by the fabulous Laura Bennett, or one created by raving lunatic Lolly Pepper (Wendy, the bitch monster from Project Runway Season One?)



Fabulous Mommy sewed this Josephine Baker inspired creation under extreme duress and time pressure, and won that week's challenge for her efforts.












While Lolly Pepper, who has enjoyed two years in the fashion spotlight, could only conjure up this nightmare.




Compare and contrast, gentle reader. There ain't no contest here.












Now, let's take a look at our designers: Which one would you trust to design your next outfit with your hard earned dollars?

Fabulous Mommy three months pregnant and standing next to her muse?




















Or Ms. Botox Lolly?

















Aaargh! Snarkfood.

One fabulous woman

Laura Bennet, my favorite runner up from Project Runway 3, was interviewed by Jill Hudson Neal for the Washington Post on October 31. Here are two of my favorite Laura quotes from the article:

"I'm also into quality as opposed to quantity. I'd rather wear four dresses over and over again than to have ten dresses that aren't made as nicely and don't fit as well. Don't worry that someone's going to say, "Didn't you wear that last week?" Well, yeah, I did actually. What's the big deal?"

"I want to keep encouraging women to take the time to take care of themselves and spend a few extra minutes on themselves in the mornings and see if it doesn't benefit their families by boosting their own self-esteem and nourishing their own souls."

Ickea

Last year when my German girlfriend came to visit she glanced at our local Ikea store as we drove by and sniffed, "That's so over."

At that moment I knew Ikea had crossed the line from trendy to mainstream. Comments on Project Rungay about Laura Bennet's fabulous loft also had that whiff of superiority about them, as if Ikea was no better than the Door Store or, gasp, WalMart.

The turning point for any fashionable icon, however well conceived, is when it enters the mainstream of satire, as with this treatment of a bus stop.

Ikea coffee table, anyone? 'Nuff said.