'Project Runway'

by Sarah Koberis

Tuesday March 7, 2006

I don’t want to incriminate myself here, but I may or may not be the recent owner of two tropical fish. These fish, which I may or may not possess, may or may not be named Vosovic and Santino. If this reference eludes you, then you’ve been wasting your Wednesday nights.

I understand that in a world with limited access to cable television one must choose wisely which television shows merit leaving one’s room for, if one chooses to partake in television viewing at all. I also understand that the idea of a reality show centering around thirteen no-name fashion designers competing for a highly coveted spot in the tents of Bryant Park during Fashion Week may not initially strike every person’s fancy. Such persons have obviously never seen “Project Runway.”

The show is hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum, and consists of design challenges each episode for which the designers must create a garment corresponding to that week’s theme. They have 48 hours to buy fabric, design and create a piece, and put the look together in preparation for the weekly runway shows-cum-elimination rounds that feature as judges Klum, designer Michael Kors, Elle magazine’s Fashion Director Nina Garcia, and a rotating celebrity—the role of which has been filled this season by the likes of Nicky Hilton, Iman, and the show’s winner from last season, Jay McCaroll. Each week one contestant is eliminated, and whoever’s design is deemed the worst gets told auf wiedersehen, (or “goodbye”) by the uber-German Klum because, as she so wisely states each show, “In the world of fashion, you’re either in or you’re out.”

But there’s more to the show than just fashion. There’s drama! Intrigue! Suspense! Inadvertently hilarious one-liners from the show’s fashion advisor, Tim Gunn!

This man not only tells the contestants when their designs are disgusting and they will therefore probably lose, Gunn also brought to the world such fantastic phrases as “Where’s Andrae?” in reference to the show’s notoriously flakey and absent contestant, Andrae Gonzalo, as well as “Make it work,” which he robotically repeats when designers are having emotional breakdowns, crying at sewing machines and screaming at no one in particular: “Where the hell is my chiffon?!”

After a grueling season, the thirteen contestants have been eliminated one by one so only three now remain: Chloe Dao, Santino Rice, and Daniel Vosovic, the latter two being the namesakes of the aforementioned fish.

Chloe is the industrious one: at 33, she already has her own boutique in her hometown of Houston, Texas. She’s been accused on the show, though, of not having the same level of passion as the other contestants, and she notoriously received quite the backhanded compliment from Santino during an elimination when he called her a “really great pattern-maker.”

Santino is the jackass, but in the best way possible. Confident, arrogant, and a bit of a bully, he once claimed that the name of “Project Runway” should be changed to “The Santino Show,” and, if it were, I’d still watch. He’s enormously talented and a serious risk-taker—for one challenge he designed a line of lingerie that came complete with fur and antlers—plus he does a mean Tim Gunn impersonation. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the clip of Santino doing Tom Gunn doing Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.”

Daniel Vosovic is the young one, the nice one, the super sexy one…I could go on. Always calm and collected when the other designers are at each other’s throats, he doesn’t need to rely on gimmicks or sabotage or manipulation to win challenges. At the tender age of 24, Danny V., a recent Fashion Institute of Technology grad, has proven he can hold his own in a competition against older and more experienced designers.

For the show’s finale (Wednesday, March 8 at 10p.m. on Bravo), my money’s on Santino. I may want to marry Daniel V., but I want Santino to design the dress. After the last episode on February 28, where the final three revealed the collections they’ll show at Fashion Week, it seems like Santino is pretty much unstoppable; Daniel V.’s collection lacked Santino’s maturity and inspiration, and Santino himself put it best when he noted that when Chloe pulled out her collection it looked like “a couch coming at you.” But who knows? Chloe could put on a great show and all of Santino’s models could trip on the runway—you won’t find out unless you watch the “Project Runway” finale unfold on Wednesday night. Or ask me on Thursday morning.

Want to catch up on all the “Project Runway” you may have missed? Episodes are available for downloading from iTunes for the low, low price of $1.99 a pop. Or go to www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway_2/.