Clashing personalities, nail-biting editing and Tim Gunn's bon mots have millions of viewers ready for Project Runway's season premiere Wednesday.
Bravo
Elisa Jimenez and Jeffrey Marion Lee
Here in Dallas, we have two more reasons. Local retailer Jeffrey Marion Lee and Booker T. Washington graduate Elisa Jimenez are two of the contestants who moved into the Atlas building on New York's 38th Street this past summer with 13 other hopefuls to compete for $100,000 in seed money for their own fashion label.
Several of the contestants already have their own labels, which explains why Bravo is hyping this season's contestants as the best yet.
"I think it has something to do with so many people see the creditability of the show, and that you really have to have talent to succeed or even to get onto [the show]," host Heidi Klum told reporters during a conference call. "I think that people see that and go, 'OK, wow. This can be a really big opportunity.'
"So a lot of really good designers are now trying to participate and get on the show. So I think each year the designers have become better and better, and the fourth season has some of the best designers yet. They're great technicians, they have great ideas. They're just all around really, really talented."
The cast is an expected mix of reality archetypes, from the wispy genius to the tattooed tough talkers to the outlandish guy favoring bright colors. The cast will be narrowed down each week until three remaining designers compete at New York Fashion Week.
A Google search for Project Runway reveals blogging has reached a boiling point. Ms. Jimenez has much buzz, being called everything from a "wack job" to winner. She may be accustomed to such uneven praise, having been through the hype machine when she was based in New York designing dresses for Courtney Love and Sarah Jessica Parker.
For Mr. Lee, co-owner of Grange Hall/Urban Flower, Runway was a second stab at a Parsons education. The show is filmed at the legendary art and design school, where he matriculated. A career change into visuals at Stanley Korshak led him to open the Travis Street home store with Rajan Patel. Many bloggers have noticed his quiet nature, which leads some insiders to caution against counting him out.
Another much-buzzed-about cast member is 21-year-old Christian Siriano, the youngest of the group. Mr. Gunn, mentor to the contestants and a fan himself, has described the 21-year-old as a prodigy. As for Mr. Lee, Mr. Gunn says, "Designers design. If you can design a house, you can design fashion. If you can design a table setting, you can design fashion."
Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo. 1 hr.
Project Runway's Tim Gunn will be the special guest at the Liz Claiborne, Dillard's, and Vogue magazine's Holiday 2007 Fashion Show and Event at The Parks at Arlington Mall at 1 p.m. Saturday. He will be signing copies of his new book, Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style.
