Thursday, February 24, 2005
| Project Runway of my Love Last night was the finale of the hit Bravo series Project Runway. For those of you who don’t know, Project Runway is a reality series created to find the next great American fashion designer! And it’s a load of fun. Each week the contestants complete a challenge relating in some way to the fashion industry. As someone who has never understood ANYTHING about high fashion, I figured I would give the series a shot. After the first week, I was completely hooked. Not only are the challenges fun to watch, the people that they cast are hilarious and interesting as fuck. Well not so much fuck as enjoyable, but you get the point. This show proves the point that reality TV (which usually sucks every last shred of brain out of your skull) is only good when the casting is done right. Who cares which lame bachelor is going to get a rose on The Bacherlorette when you can watch Austin Scarlett and Wendy Pepper go absolutely insane over backstabbing and a piece of fabric. Last night’s finale was two hours long and worth every second of it. There was stress, cat fights, the strangest designs I’ve ever seen, and a shocking, but totally satisfying winner. The last three contestants were: Jay McCarroll (an overweight gay guy from Hicksville, USA who was as outlandish as he was bitingly funny), Kara Sohn (A pretty, confident black woman with designers blood coursing through her veins), and Wendy Pepper (The middle-aged villain of the group). The finale was shot 5 months after the last episode was taped in order to give the designers five months to create their final collection for Olympus Fashion Week in NYC. By the time that the final three showed up to present their collections, all of them had seen on TV what kind of backstabbing and lying had been going on during the taping. It was brilliant and I relished in each and every fight that took place throughout the two hour special. “Everybody hates you Wendy. You have no talent and everybody hates you!” spat Jay as I laughed and laughed until my sides split wide open. And then Kara goes and has designer shoes delivered to top off her designs, which is totally cheating, and made her look like a complete thief in the night. LOVED IT! At the final runway show, Parker Posey (who is just about the best person on earth) joined the panel of judges and was her usual bizarre self; laughing and playing with her untamed crazy hair. More than anything I wanted to be sitting next to her talking shop and snorting coke up my nose. Each designer presented their collection and I sat there trying to figure out a way that I could become a male model. How awesome is it to walk out in crazy clothing, acting all tough and important with cameras and lights and music booming around you? What a fun and adrenaline filled job that must be! If only I could lose about a hundred pounds and learn how to tame my Asian hair. The designs were so-so, until Jay’s final presentation. The thing I’ve learned about creating a “collection” is that the clothes need to be simplistic with a major theme running throughout the presentation. It’s good to put your individuality into the design, but make sure that each piece tells a story as they are presented. Jay McCarroll’s Collection was aesthetically beautiful, with a strong theme, and he totally knocked the other two competitors out of the water. When they made him King (or Queen) of the Runway, I clapped out loud. I literally…clapped out loud. It was the finest moment of television I’ve seen all week. I’m eagerly awaiting the next season of this overly addictive reality show. The directing, the challenges, the contestants…it’s all very well done, as most of Bravo’s programming is. And when I talk to my friends and say “Don’t be a Wendy Pepper”, it’s really just plain hysterics all around. The New York Times is quoted as saying “Project Runway is the Prada of all reality TV shows”. It’s time for you to get your very own designer handbag and take a seat on the couch. |
