Elle magazine and Project Runway have had a partnership since day one, with Elle Fashion Director Nina Garcia sitting on the judging panel for the past three seasons.
While there are still several months before Season Four of Project Runway begins, Elle is whetting our appetites now with some sneak peaks into the nationwide casting process for the show. They’ve posted on their website the casting diary for four cities on the casting tour: Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Miami.
The diaries focus mainly on the more terrible American Idol/trainwreck-style fashion hopefuls, but there are a few clues as to some of the designers we might be seeing next season.
In Los Angeles, Elle’s representative on the casting panel (along with Tim Gunn and Jeffrey Sibelia, Season Three winner) notes that they were disappointed at the relative lack of true creativity and design passion. She also comments that she thinks most people were there to meet Tim and Jeffrey.
Chicago’s casting brought a diverse and eclectic group to meet with Tim and Michael Knight (finalist from Season Three) due to its central location. Some hopefuls flew in from Washington state or even drove all the way up from Texas.
In New York City, Tim was joined by Laura Bennett, Season Three finalist, and Daniel Vosovic from Season Two. The New York hopefuls included many transvestites – both as designers and models. One designer brought costumes – not clothes – but didn’t give up when the panel rejected him for this. He rented a sewing machine and came back. The panel member notes that she “think[s] he wore [them] down” due to his persistence, so he might be someone we will see come December when the show premieres.
Miami was another “eccentric” group, with one woman who designs her clothes for fairies, and another who made the mistake of lying to Tim Gunn about attending Parsons School of Design. There were, though, a few bright spots, like the designer who uses vintage fabrics, or the New Orleans native who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, but still impressed the judges with her passion for fashion.
We still have a while to wait before we find out if we actually see these designers on the show in December, but with the solid formula Project Runway has had in the past, one hopes the group of selected designers will once again be an interesting bunch.
– Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
(Source: Elle.com)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
