Project Runway After Party

Casting Special
45 semifinalists narrowed down to a cast of 15.

Santino’s been designing for celebrities and stuff and busting out with Tibetan monastery chants. Wendy Pepper’s “doing quite well” at keeping that smug look on her face. Chloe still has her store in Texas and watches her Project Runway show 24/7. Kara Saun has her own line, her own investor, and a gig designing Heidi’s maternity outfits. Austin is designing wedding gowns for Amsale.

But enough about last season - these designers I found somewhat intriguing:

Robert Best, a designer for Barbie, was a shoo-in, since he was a former Parsons student. Even Michael Kors knew who he was. He (Robert) designs clothes for Barbie dolls.

Uli Herzner busted out some cool prints, and also some German from Heidi. I smell a Deutchland Battle Supreme coming on!

Stacy Estrella, the Stanfurd undergrad (go Bears!), Harvard MBA-turned-designer, killed me with her “I want to build a brand” bullshit. Whatever. Don’t even get me started. Not that I’m biased or anything. But she gets props for loving flamenco. Fine. She can stay.

Bonnie Dominguez used to design for Serena Williams. Yikes. But she currently is the head of women’s design for my favorite flip-flop brand, Reef.

And I hope Vincent Libretti does well. Homeboy cashed out his 401k to be on this show.

Anyway. I’m not going through them all, but you know who I’m interested in finding more about? Malan. You know he’ll be a little bitch. And it will be delicious to watch.


Episode 1: Wall-to-Wall Fashion (Now featuring a non-pregnant Heidi!)
The designers arrive in Manhattan. Check out Laura sporting the multiple Louis Vuitton pieces!

Looks like Bravo’s started to take some casting cues from MTV’s Real World casting, because they’ve put together a pretty interesting group together this season. Lots of varied experiences, backgrounds, and attitudes. Surely, drama will ensue!

The designers meet non-pregnant Heidi and Tim Gunn on the rooftop of the Atlas for the traditional “welcome to the show” glass of champagne.

Holy shit, I recognize Robert Best! He worked for Isaac Mizrahi, and he’s the guy who says “I scrim, you scrim, we all scrim for the scrim” in Mizrahi’s “Unzipped.” Remember that? Man, I love when I recognize people.

Heidi busts out with the first challenge: Use materials found in your apartment to create a garment that says something about who you are as a designer. Why do they always make these designers rip up their own possessions? But still, I’m so relieved they didn’t force them to make dresses out of stuff you can buy at Duane Reade this time around. I'm so over dresses made out of shower curtains.

Oh, wait.

“I was a bit disappointed that we’d be working with bedsheets and interior fabrics. I myself prefer better quality fabrics,” says Malan in his best Hannibal Lechter voice.

Brat alert! Mr. Mizrahi started to pout when Bradley took his pillowcase. Get over it!

“I don’t want to live here after this,” he jokes. But you just know he’s serious.

On to the workspace at Parsons, where Tim tells them that the winner of this challenge gets immunity, and that it’s time for them to make it work. Oh great. I can just see them working this catchphrase to death.

Jeffery quickly emerges as the arrogant one of the bunch, calling everyone else’s garments as “intermediate” and “remedial.” Oh please. Just because you designed a dress for J-Lo once. Get over yourself. It's irrelevant on this show. Seriously.

After a whole day of working, the designers come back to a disheveled, busted up apartment. That’s just messed up, Bravo.

Laura has created an awesome jacket with faux fur trim on the collar and cuffs. It’s only the first episode, and we’re just meeting everyone now, but at this moment, I really understood what it means to see a designer’s personality shine through his or her work. This coat had Laura written all over it.

Hold up. The Macy’s accessory wall? What happened to Banana Republic? And a mentorship with I.N.C.?

Vincent, Mr. 401k, you gotta love his enthusiasm and hopefulness. But the writing’s on the wall – he’s gonna get The Auf, I can feel it. And his model can feel it too – you can tell by the look on her face. Girlfriend is so not feeling the basket hat.

On to the runway!

Melan’s boucle’-ish blouse was pretty classy, although I think the judges are going to say that the top is shapeless, which it was.

Michael really surprised me. Dude made a dress out of coffee filters! How can you hate on that?! Maybe he really is going to be a mothaf*ckin' fashion star after all!

Oh man, Vincent. You were “groovin’ on your thing”? He’s groovin’ a little too overeagerly or something. I mean, he almost ran into the person in front of him walking off the runway, he was so eager. You can tell he really wants this, but his garment just didn’t move me. At all. He's like that uncle in his 50's that still tries hard to seem cool, but really, he's Jerry Lewis in "The Nutty Professor."

Jeffery’s dress – for all his shit talking – really wasn’t all that spectacular. Did I miss something? And yes, the RuPaul-esque feather spray in the beginning was dramatic, but really, that’s about it.

Poor Vincent. He just got 66% of those Project Runway viewers stupid enough to participate in their text-message poll to say that he’s going to get “Auf’d.”

I refuse to use the new Project Runway Season 3 vocab they’re trying to push on me!

Keith wins the challenge – and immunity – the one instance where the result flies in the face of Tim Gunn’s recommendation. Interesting.

Wow. Vincent’s in. No discussion. Verrrrrry interesting.

Stacey Stanfurd gets The Auf. Go Bears!

UPDATE: Blogging Project Runway will be linking to my recaps again this season, and it's worth checking out the good folks there, as you'll find cool information on All Things Runway. Seriously, they're hooked up.