Meet the Designers of 'Project Accessory' Season 1

The hit design competition series Project Runway is getting a little sister of sorts, as Lifetime preps to debut the spin-off Project Accessory tomorrow, October 27 at 10:30pm following the Project Runway season finale.


Hosted by actress and model Molly Sims, 12 designers will compete and showcase their unique vision for accessories, and show audiences how to transform any outfit. The designers must dazzle Sims and the judges -- designer Kenneth Cole and InStyle Editor Ariel Foxman -- with their one-of-a-kind jewelry, belts, bags, shoes, headpieces, etc. with the help of lifestyle expert Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti as their mentor.

Guest judges for the first season of Project Accessory will include some stylish celebs, like Emmy Award-winning actress Debra Messing and Fashion Police host Kelly Osbourne.

The winner of Project Accessory will receive $100,000 from eBay Fashion to start their own line, a feature spread in InStyle and a year of professional runway hair styling courtesy of John Frieda Precision Foam Color.

Meet the Designers of 'Project Runway' Season 9

Say what you want about the last few seasons of Project Runway, but it will always be one of my guilty pleasures. And after months of waiting, the designers of season 9 -- premiering on Thursday, July 28 at 9pm on Lifetime -- have finally been revealed.


Season 9 will feature a whopping 20 designers in the premiere episode (don't worry, swift cuts are sure to happen early) with a wacky outdoor challenge and guest judge Kim Kardashian.

Mentored by everyone's favorite fancyman Tim Gunn, meet the 20 hopeful designers who will try to "make it work" in front of Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors in the latest season of Project Runway.

'Project Runway' Gets Re-Fitted for Season 8

Attention, designers! The new cast of Project Runway has been revealed and it looks like the theme of season 8 will be "more more more!"


Beyond having the most number of designers ever (17 in total) each episode will now be 90 minutes long! Runway will now air Thursday nights at 9pm on Lifetime. Check out this beautiful promo for the new season:

'Project Runway' Season 7 Designers Revealed

Although season 6 of Project Runway just wrapped up last month a new season is already set to premiere on Jan. 14th. In preparation for the new season myLifetime.com has unveiled the 16 designers of season 7.


I always enjoying seeing the first photos of the designers and trying to figure out what style of clothing they will create. Looks like a pretty diverse cast, too, especially the cruise ship captain guy. Here's a closer look at all the designers.


Just like last season, there is also a new season of Models of the Runway to document the behind-the-scenes moves of the women who work the designers' garment each week.

Project Runway returns Thursday Jan. 24th at 10pm on Lifetime followed by Models of the Runway at 11pm.

'Launch My Line' Looks to Fill Fashion TV Void

In another attempt to fill the sew-to-the-death vacuum created by Project Runway's move to Lifetime Bravo prepares to debut its latest show Launch My Line tonight at 11pm. The thing that sets Launch My Line apart from its predecessors is that the contestants are not the typical fashion fare -- They're business people from other professions hoping to start their own fashion line.


(l-r) Desingers Kevin Black Collins, Louanna Rawls, Vanessa Gonzalez, Katherine Rose, Dan Karaty, Merle Ginsberg, L. Marilyn Crawford, Patrick McDonald, Eric Cubeechee, David Applebaum [Bravo Photo: Pete Tangen]

So what does a journalist, an architect, a choreographer or an event planner know about fashion design? Nothing more than any of the big-name celebrities who come out with clothing lines every year. So due to their lack of construction knowledge the wannabe designers are teamed up with "experts" who cut, sew and create the actual garments the designers drum up.

The concept is pretty realistic when it comes to the world of fashion design (do you think the big-name designers or celebs are cutting their own fabric?) but makes it much less impressive than Runway, or even Bravo's ill-fated The Fashion Show. While it's fun to watch nobody's create and produce their own garments, it's not nearly as entertaining to watch semi-nobody's tell other nobody's what to make for them. While I will say that it is a completely different show from Project Runway (it's actually more like shows like Dancing With the Stars where "celebs" try out a new skill) the comparisons are impossible to avoid.

The other jarring thing about the show is the vast number of cast members who appear on the screen at any given time. There are 10 designers, who are each teamed up with an expert, there are 2 hosts/judges (twin designers Dan and Dean Caten of DSquared) and two other judges, so at one point there are 24 people on the screen at once -- not to mention the models who show off the clothes. Casting is so important when it comes to reality shows, but it's hard to figure out who to love or hate when there are so many people to choose from.

Overall I think Launch My Line will be as entertaining and mindless (in a good way) to watch as all the other competition reality shows out there. Do I think it has the potential to make it to a second season? Probably not in its current form, but perhaps if the series is able to get greater semi-known names to join the cast (again, like Dancing With the Stars) it might actually have a shot at being quite interesting.

Launch My Line premieres tonight on Bravo at 11pm then returns to its normal 10pm slot every Wednesday night. Are you going to watch?

Project Runway Prepares for Relaunch With Supesized Premiere Night

Tonight's the night of reckoning for Project Runway as the show's sixth season debuts on Lifetime.


Project Runway's Season 6 Cast
With a huge gap between Season 5 on Bravo and the Season 6 premiere fans have been left Runway-less since October of 2008, which means tonight's episode will determine a lot. Will fans of the show make the jump from one network to another? And will the Lifetime audience take a liking to the unusual addition to their generally reality-free lineup? One very smart thing that Lifetime has done to attract loyal viewers is to beef up premiere night with an entire evening of Runway-themed shows.

A 2-hour special Project Runway: All Star Challenge, airing before the Season 6 premiere, pits eight designers from previous seasons against each other for a chance at $100,00. Then following the first episode of the new season Lifetime will air the Project Runway spin-off Models of the Runway, which follows the behind the scenes life of the models who work the garments the contestants make each week.


The Models of the Runway
Models of the Runway is almost a throw back to the first season of Runway where the models were given their own side interviews. Remember- It's a competition for them, too! Maybe it's a imitation version of America's Next Top Model, but since the franchise's new producers Bunim-Murray promised they wouldn't mess with the original format of Project Runway (they produce drama-heavy reality shows like The Real World) this spin-off gives them a chance to do what they do best: Cram people in a house and watch them fight. Should be an interesting look at how models live together and compete in a real-life setting without the over-produced shenanigans that come with ANTM.

I know that I will definitely be sitting down for all 3.5 hours of Runway action tonight, how about you? Will you follow the series over to Lifetime (if you can find it in NYC. Time Warner just swapped put Oxygen into Lifetime's old spot on Channel 12?) Does it matter to you which network the show airs or are you just happy it's back on TV?

Pick Up The Phone, It's Tim Gunn!

Want to get a personalized phone call from Project Runway's Tim Gunn? Now's your chance!


Lifetime has a fun call service set up so you can have the "make it work" maven give you or a friend a ring. I did it and it's totally fun. I particularly enjoyed the part where Tim told me to be careful so Michael Kohrs didn't say "she was pooping fabric."

What happened to Andre?

'Project Runway' All Stars to Face-Off in Two-Hour Special

Finally! Some Project Runway news worthy of talking about! Lifetime, the show's new home, announced today that they will air a 2-hour special "Project Runway: All Star Challenge" before the Season 6 premiere on Thursday, August 20 at 8pm.


The past contestants include Daniel Vosovic (Season 2), Santino Rice (Season 2), Jeffrey Sebelia (Season 3), Uli Herzner (Season 3), Mychael Knight (Season 3), Chris March (Season 4), Sweet P (Season 4), Korto Momolu (Season 5), with the winning designer taking home a $100,000 prize.


The all-star challenge is a great way to ease older Project Runway fans from the show's old home on Bravo to its new home on Lifetime. The familiar faces and challenges will make viewers feel comfortable in their new space and hopefully keep them coming back for the new season. I'm very excited for Runway to return, and to see my fave cast designers go head-to-head. If you ask me they should have done an entire season with past contestants. I would be totally hooked on that.

Will you be watching Project Runway when it debuts on Lifetime? Who do you think will win the All Star Challenge?

My Blog is Leatha'

My buddy Eric was in town from Philly this past weekend and gave me a cool, little gift. He knows I'm a big Project Runway fan, and he made me a button of Stella from season 4 that says "leatha" on it. I think it's hysterical.


So, I got to go to my very first fashion show during fashion week tonight (it was for Jordache and the clothes were fug) so I thought I would wear the pin and see if anyone picked up on it. Just for shiggles... No one at the show noticed it, but I did see a ton of my fave reality show folks. I was 6 seats down from Ms. J. of ANTM fame and both Dani (winner of Cycle 6 of ANTM) and Perry (from Make Me a Supermodel) walked in the show (pictures below).

The best thing happened though on my way home from the venue. I was walking about 2 blocks from my apartment when, out of the corner of my eye, I see Stella walking down 8th avenue. She was walking her dog and I knew I had to talk to her. I said, "Stella!" and she said, "*Stella voice* Yea?" I said "Hey, I'm Patrick. I'm wearing a pin of you. Leatha'." She got a total kick out of it! I told her that my friend made it and that I loved her on Runway and she told me about her new shop that she's opening on the lower east side. Clearly we took a pic.


Attempt #1 with eyes closed (then the camera died!)


Re-do with the camera phone (THANKS, BRIAN!)
Stella was mad cool, as expected, and asked me to send her one of the pins. I said, "just take this one" and she said "no, I couldn't" and I said "No, you want it, don't you?" and she said "Ya. Ya, I do!" So I pinned her with her leatha pin and off she went! I immediately called Eric to tell him that he is now famous.

How funny is that?! Maybe I'll see the pin on the reunion special! You rock, Stella!

Here's my pix of the runway show:



Just another ridiculously random day in my life.

Related Things:

• More things about television
• More things about NYC

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Fierce: The Hot Mess Make-Over Show

Saturday Night Live was new again this weekend for the third week in a row with Amy Adams hosting with musical guest Vampire Weekend. I generally think that SNL is mostly funny the majority of the time... but this week featured a sketch was probably one of the most spot-on parodies I have seen in a really long time.

Last week was the finale of season 4 of the hit Bravo show Project Runway, and the winner was none other than legend-in-his-own-mind Christian Siriano. If you are unfamiliar with Christian, please take a minute to watch this a familiarize yourself before watching the sketch. Amy Poehler does a spot-on impersonation and I was literally crying while I watched last night... please enjoy below, or you can click here to watch.



I wouldn't even be surprised if Bravo decided to actually make this a show.

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Related Things:

• More Saturday Night Live
• More Bravo