The Boob Tube: 'Project Runway' keeps making it work
Emily Polluck
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Arts
I have a feeling that Project Runway will be hot as long as Heidi Klum is. And from the looks of Heidi, that's going to be a very long time. And while I know the saying is that things are supposed to "get better with age," I'm of the opinion that Project Runway, now in its seventh season, is really just consistent with age. Consistently hot.
Not much has changed since the network switch from Bravo to Lifetime, either - the result of a long, drawn-out lawsuit following the series' fifth season. In fact, even though the sixth season - because Lifetime is apparently all about switching it up - was filmed and judged in Los Angeles, the format remained the same and the workroom in Los Angeles' Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising looked eerily similar to the workroom back at New York's Parson's New School for Design. There were some attempts to demonstrate, or perhaps prove - I had my doubts - that the sixth season was actually Los Angeles-based, like an awards show dress challenge and a challenge involving beachwear. I'm sure no one saw those coming.
But as much as Project Runway asserts that it is about innovation, the show itself is a long way off from doing anything different or inventive from season to season - except for the brief exposure to sunshine. Still, as Tim Gunn would put it, Project Runway makes it work.
Take the third episode from this current season: The entire thing was just a replay of almost every Project Runway trick in the Project Runway book. First off, the designers had to work in pairs, which just makes sense since there are still so many of them that if they all designed one outfit, it would require Nina Garcia to verbally tear apart way more outfits than her usual quota.
Later in the episode, the designers were told to design a second "look for less" in addition to the couture piece each pair had been making. They really should have seen that coming. Whenever Tim Gunn walks back in that workroom and says, "Gather around designers," they should know it's going to be good. However, there was the added twist of having to design the second look based on another pair's couture design, which was admittedly a nice curveball.
Not much has changed since the network switch from Bravo to Lifetime, either - the result of a long, drawn-out lawsuit following the series' fifth season. In fact, even though the sixth season - because Lifetime is apparently all about switching it up - was filmed and judged in Los Angeles, the format remained the same and the workroom in Los Angeles' Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising looked eerily similar to the workroom back at New York's Parson's New School for Design. There were some attempts to demonstrate, or perhaps prove - I had my doubts - that the sixth season was actually Los Angeles-based, like an awards show dress challenge and a challenge involving beachwear. I'm sure no one saw those coming.
But as much as Project Runway asserts that it is about innovation, the show itself is a long way off from doing anything different or inventive from season to season - except for the brief exposure to sunshine. Still, as Tim Gunn would put it, Project Runway makes it work.
Take the third episode from this current season: The entire thing was just a replay of almost every Project Runway trick in the Project Runway book. First off, the designers had to work in pairs, which just makes sense since there are still so many of them that if they all designed one outfit, it would require Nina Garcia to verbally tear apart way more outfits than her usual quota.
Later in the episode, the designers were told to design a second "look for less" in addition to the couture piece each pair had been making. They really should have seen that coming. Whenever Tim Gunn walks back in that workroom and says, "Gather around designers," they should know it's going to be good. However, there was the added twist of having to design the second look based on another pair's couture design, which was admittedly a nice curveball.
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