With the myriad of reality shows that have taken over the television airwaves in the past few years, it becomes a formidable task to discern the mildly entertaining from the excruciatingly un-watchable programming.
The Bravo Network’s “Project Runway,” ending its second season tonight, is a competition in which 16 aspiring fashion designers vie for the chance to show their collection at New York’s famed fashion week, a fashion spread in Elle magazine and $100,000 to start their own fashion line.
Each week on the show, the designers are given challenges to create different garments in a matter of hours and then show them on the runway to be judged by fashion designers, executives and the show’s host, supermodel Heidi Klum. Some of this season’s challenges have been to create an outfit for a Barbie doll, an ice skating costume for Sasha Cohen and a garden party dress made completely out of plants and flowers. The winning designer moves on with the rest of the designers and the loser gets Klum’s famous “Auf wiedersehen” at the end of his or her run.
The contestants on “Project Runway” are truly talented, and each week’s episodes are a feast of delicacies for the eyes. The designer’s pieces are wonderfully imaginative and artistically inspiring.
Tonight’s finale features the final three contestants who have made it so far in the competition.
Santino Rice is a 30-year-old fashion designer from Los Angeles, who has been dubbed the abrasive asshole for this season’s competition. Despite his brusque behavior, Rice is also the source for most of the humor in the design room. His impressions of Tim Gunn, their advisor and the chairman of the department of fashion at Parsons the New School for Design, where the competition takes place in New York’s Greenwich Village, is mysteriously similar to Gunn’s own voice. Rice is famous for imitating Gunn’s trademark lines of “carry on” and “make it work,” not to mention his imaginary romantic relationship between Gunn and Andrae Gonzalo, another contest from season two. Rice’s design creations always go a step beyond the ordinary – something the judge’s warn might hurt him. Nevertheless, Rice’s designs are always unique.
The second finalist is Chloe Dao, a boutique owner from Houston who specializes in pattern making. Throughout the show, many of the other designers felt that Dao’s designs were the weakest of the group, despite the judges’ affliction for her creations. Dao won the second challenge of the season, in which the contestants were given the mission to create a completely new design from the clothes they literally had on their backs when going out for a night in New York City. Despite having very little clothing on that night, Dao pulled off the assignment and created a sophisticated and sexy black and blue slip dress.
The last finalist and my personal favorite is Daniel Vosovic, a 24-year-old designer from New York. Vosovic has won five challenges this season, more than any other contestant and his beautiful garments are a testament to his knowledge of the female form and how to drape it fabulously in fabric. Probably Rice’s biggest competition, Vosovic’s creations are something unusual and unique but always beautiful when appearing on the runway.
The models on the show are also in competition, as the model paired with the winning designer will appear in the Elle magazine spread. The designers also win a mentorship with the Banana Republic Design Team and a car from Saturn.
The season finale of “Project Runway” airs tonight at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
