PR on the RC

That's "Project Runway on the Red Carpet," for those of you not up on our hep cat lingo.

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PR: On the Road Again

We think for Season 8, PR should have an animal mascot, don't you? They make everything cuter.

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PRG at Bryant Park

Darlings, we're off to the tents this chilly Manhattan morning, so content will be a little on the light side. Since we have no idea what to expect from this weirdly anonymous fashion show, we don't know how much twittering we'll be doing. Not as much as last season's runway show, because how interesting is it to get a tweet proclaiming "Some designer we don't know and can't see just sent an ugly dress down the runway!" At any rate, check back here for updates. At the very least,we'll let you know what Heidi and Nina are wearing and who the guest judge is.

Oh! And we'll have the pictures from Leanne's and Christian's shows up as soon as we get back.


You can follow our twitter here.


[Photo: WireImage]

The Heart Truth Red Dress Collection

Darlings, the fashion week festivities kicked off today with Tim Gunn hosting The National Heart Lung and Blood Institutes Red Dress Fashion Show.

"On February 13, 2009, The Heart Truth will bring the Red Dress to life once again on the runway at New York Fashion Week with the debut of the Red Dress Collection 2009. This spectacular event reminds women of the need to protect their heart health and inspires them to take action. For the first time ever, a selection of the designer dresses seen on the runway will be auctioned online in February through a partnership with Clothes Off Our Back."

(Click on each picture for a better view)


Kristi Yamaguchi in Vera Wang

Pretty, but unspectacular. It's really the only dress in the collection that leaves us a little flat.


Linda Carter in Carolina Herrera

Bitch looks AMAZING. You go, Wonder Woman!


Tori Spelling in Betsey Johnson

This was adorable - and restrained, for Betsey.


Valerie Bertinelli in Christian Siriano

Big props to Princess for getting himself out there everywhere you look. Oh, and those who say he can only design for size 0 models? Nunh-unh. She looks great.

Read Christian's take on the show here.


Vivica Fox in Jenny Packham

Fierce.


Hilary Duff in Donna Karan

This is the best DK look we've seen in ages.


Susan Lucci in Gustavo Cadile

What a gorgeous dress.


Katie Couric in Carmen Marc Valvo

LOVE this dress. It's very flattering and the glitter at the top makes it.



[Photos: WireImage]

In Praise of Gretta

Darlings, you might remember that we were a teensy bit critical of the first season of Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. Among the many complaints we had - too serious and preachy, too much product placement and too many high-end gifts that sold the point that style costs a lot of money - foremost among them had to do with his co-host at the time, Veronica Webb. For a former model, she demonstrated horrific personal style (a cardinal sin in a makeover show) and worse, she had absolutely no chemistry with Tim. As much as we love him, the man desperately needs someone to play off, otherwise he comes off too professorial.

Well, one of the things they got right this season was the addition of style entrepreneur Gretta Monahan. She fits the bill on everything the show needed: a woman with great personal style, the warmth that allows her to connect with each episode's client, and an efficient problem-solving capability. In fact, one of our favorite things she brings to the show is when she takes the client's existing clothes and whips them into something new and stylish and better fitted. That's a unique take on a makeover show: the idea that you don't always have to throw out everything in your closet and start over to achieve style. Most important of all, she brings a personality and sense of fun that positions her both as a counterpoint to Tim's educational style and a means of getting Tim to loosen up a bit. They have great chemistry together onscreen without immediately making you think of Stacey and Clinton. Don't get us wrong, we love Stacey and Clinton, but a makeover show needs to differentiate itself and with the Gunn/Monahan team you have a partnership that reminds us more of John Steed and Emma Peel than anyone else. They could rename it The Style Avengers.

The show still has some elements that annoy us slightly. The obvious staging, for one. We don't expect a cinema verite style but there are times when we feel they're on their tenth take of a scene and none of the principals are exactly winning awards for their acting. Thankfully, they got rid of the "rifling through the underwear drawer on national television" bit, which always came across a little cruel. They still have every client visit some sort of foundation garment specialist, but that's a good lesson that a lot of woman could learn from, so we don't mind it.

We're even coming around on the OptiTech. We still think it's representative of a slight problem with the theme of the show - that style is somehow a science and all one needs to do is look at it as objectively as possible and employ rules and scientific principles to become stylish - but we can't deny that the way it's been utilized this season has a benefit to it. When someone stands in front of a mirror, they see what they want to see or what they're prone to see, but they rarely ever see themselves objectively. The OptiTech removes that and allows Tim to point out where each client is going wrong in dressing themselves. As silly and stagey as it may seem, it does get the job done and again, at least it's not aping the three-way mirror of What Not To Wear.

But our highest praise is still reserved for Gretta. She could probably carry a show like this on her own, but she plays the sidekick well. She's able to empathize with each woman on the show in a way that Tim never could and yet she's always shows him the highest respect even when she might not always agree with him. She knows who the star of the show is and she knows her job is to fill in the gaps. Bravo to Bravo. This was the right choice. Now don't screw it up by giving her her own show.


[Photos: Bravotv.com]

Homeward Bound

Darlings, if you're a long-time minion, you know how much we enjoy what we call the "homeward bound" episode at the end of every season. You can read our original thoughts on why we love it so much here. Basically, what we love most about it is that it fills in the blanks on these designers and gives us a glimpse into their "real" day-to-day lives. Plus, they look better because they got a full night's sleep and had time to do their hair and put on makeup.

Also, we get the high-comedy of seeing Tim driving a Saturn, a sight we once described as "about as believable as a scene depicting him making out with a woman."

'

Case in point.

Sometimes the staging on this show gets awfully silly.

First stop: KortoLand. We have to say, we thought she looked utterly fabulous and we thought it was cute that she seemed a bit nervous about what Tim was going to think of her work. It must be strange for the designers. They got used to having Tim come in and critique them in the fishbowl of Parson's but to have him come into your home and personal workspace to offer his criticisms must be awfully daunting.

Korto honey, why didn't you just stop here? We don't fall-down love it but it's a hell of a sight better than the final product.

And God, how beautiful are those colors? She said she wanted a collection that was "ethnic but not too ethnic" and this peek shows that she's definitely on the right track.

He said "snapshot" you dirty birds. We refuse to believe that Tim would ever use the word "snatch" unless he was talking about grabbing something.

LOVED the drumming session. How awesome was that? Of course every year with every remaining designer, they attempt to paint some hardship picture. Witness Santino's homelessness. Jeffrey's addiction, Uli's black-and-white East German childhood, Jay's smalltown homosexuality, etc. But damn, "We had to leave Liberia during the civil war because they would have killed my entire family" is right up there with Chloe's Laotian refugee tale.

Is that not the cutest fucking thing you've ever seen? We got toothaches from it. Tim in a widdle helmet! We're dying here!

Like his visit with Korto, it came across to us that Leanne not only really values Tim's expertise and opinions, she also seemed to just enjoy seeing him and chatting for a while.

Tim responded to her collection exactly as we expected. Having seen it ourselves, if he'd been underwhelmed or too critical, we would have been VERY upset. Of course Daddy came through for us.

NerdLove is so cute, isn't it? Could these two possibly be any better of a match for each other? We met Nathan at Bryant Park and he's an utter sweetheart who reads the blog regularly. He's also, like our Alex, a cartoonist. Clap loudly and tell him you want him to submit a strip for us.

We have to say, we're not loving the goatee, which makes him look a little like Marvin Gaye. Not that there's anything wrong with looking like Marvin Gaye, but we thought he looked cuter without it.

Tim's critique was hard to watch because it was sorely needed and we could tell it was falling on deaf ears. We're all for designers being true to themselves but this is a competition and if you're not going to curtail your more out-there impulses in order to stay in the game, you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

Yes, he introduced his SignOther as his "love interest," which we thought was pretty clever but some people seemed to think it was a little weird. We just think it was Jerell being Jerell.

His family seemed sweet and supportive too.

Maybe we're reading too much into it but Kenley seemed like she was a nervous wreck meeting up with Tim again.

We suspect being cast as this season's villain caught her way off guard and for someone who's naturally defensive under the best circumstances, the realization that seemingly 99% of the internet has negative opinions about her must have been pretty damn hard to handle.

Of course she immediately reverted to form and got defensive at the slightest critique.

Not just unattractive, it's plain weird.

And Tim, we're dying to know where you stand on the whole "ripoff" issue. Knowing what we know both about this show and about Tim, we wouldn't be a bit surprised that he brought it up but it was edited out so the judges could be the ones to tell her they've seen it before.

As for the little reunion in the hotel, clearly the producers wanted a blowup in the Wendy/Kara Saun manner, but none of these people are extreme enough in their personalities (not even Kenley) to pull it off. Instead we got a lot of immature passive agression that evaporated with one half-assed apology followed by alcohol for all. Oh well. Hopefully there'll be a fistfight in the tent in this week's episode.

[Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

Tim Gunn's Guide to Style

Darling's as we're sure you've seen the "That's my BODY?" adverts several times a week for the last several weeks, then you must know that Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, premieres tonight at 11 PM ET/PT. Why so late, we don't know, but the series moves to its regular time slot of 10 PM Thursdays as of next week.

We'll be watching with some curiosity. The show had some issues last season and we're wondering how they've resolved them. Apparently, there are no more pawing-through-the-underwear-drawer scenes and poodles, that can only be considered a good thing.

A potentially good thing is the addition of new co-host, stylist Gretta Monahan. Anyone would be an improvement over last season's Veronica Webb, but this girl still has to prove herself to us. You bitches be bitchy in the comments section and let us know what you think.

Previews:





[Photo and videos: Bravotv.com]

PRG Toons!

Once again, Alex tries on dresses and once again he makes Lorenzo (to his eternal annoyance) look like a Mexican Tintin.

Clickie to biggie, bitches!


[Illustrations: Alex Cox/Projectrungay.blogspot.com]

Project Runway at the Emmys

Darlings, PR was well-represented at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (even if they didn't win one - boo!). From judges in pretty dresses to pretty dresses made by judges, there is much to discuss, so let's get started, shall we?


Heidi in a very modified version of Armani Privé Fall 2008 collection:




She looks fantastic...

...but those earrings are ridiculous.


Heidi in Valentino Fall 2008 Couture. Normally we'd rag on Jeff Probst for wearing a tux without a tie but the less clothing on him, the better.

Beautiful gown but we're not crazy about dresses that match the wearer's hair color.



Michael Kors Spring 2009 Collection

This would be one of the few pieces from the Duchess' collection that we liked and the color really looks great on her.




Christian Siriano Spring 2009 Collection

We also liked this dress from Princess' collection but we're not sure it's Heidi's style. It's a little too grandiose and "couture" for an awards show.



Modified version of Armani Privé Fall 2008 collection

Of course she looks spectacular but we like the unmodified version better.

Click here for more dresses, darlings!>>

[Photos: WireImage/Getty Images/Celebutopia/Style.com]