12/19/2023 0 Comments Project runway season 7 designersI kept up with the Lifetime seasons, which were much less naturally dramatic and inventive, out of a sense of obligation, but when the show returned to Bravo with season 17, I became newly reinterested in it as a concept. Since then, I’ve gone back and watched every season from the original Bravo years multiple times, read the associated Project Rungay recaps that are now lost to link rot (my personal burning of the Library of Alexandria), and mourned the loss of that scrappy show that could. Frank: The first season I watched live was season eight (the Mondo Gretchen season), which, not to de-age myself, came out when I was in fourth grade. We can get into whether we think the judging has matched this vibe or dragged it down, but in general, Jason, how have you felt about this season? Bringing back previous contestants who are familiar with Project Runway’s time and budget constraints (and have their own grudges and dramas) has been engaging Siriano is a thoughtful and spirited onscreen presence, even if he rarely says “fierce” anymore the ’90s high school-themed team competition was very fun. This season, however, has mostly clicked for me, despite some quibbles that we’ll talk through. The series has tried making changes to stay fresh - the judging panel, which once held Michael Kors, swapped in other designers like Zac Posen and Brandon Maxwell, added magazine editor Elaine Welteroth, and in its smartest move, brought back Siriano as a mentor and host starting in season 17 - but I admit that my interest lessened as it felt like Project Runway wasn’t finding the same caliber of people and wasn’t creating new challenges. Yet I think it’s fair to say that Project Runway’s impact waned as the reality-TV genre expanded and Gunn and Klum left for their Prime Video series Making the Cut. From the very beginning, the show was great at casting passionate, distinct competitors who had a specific fashion perspective and work ethic, the apex of which was season four winner Christian Siriano, whose success afterward made him nearly as synonymous with the show as Tim and Heidi. Back then, before reality TV was fully everywhere, it was a phenomenon with Tim Gunn’s “Make it work!” catchphrase and Heidi Klum taking time off from supermodeling to host and judge. I remember watching Project Runway in my college dorm room when it debuted, and then with my best friend in our first postgraduation apartment. But before then, let’s talk about how this All-Stars season fits into the series’ legacy. These judging decisions, they make no sense - and we’ll get into that. Roxana Hadadi: Jason, I write this to you through tears over Rami Kashoú’s unjust exit in the semifinals of this 20th season of Project Runway. Frank dug into that question, this season’s attack on “dated” fashions but defense of “referential” designs, and whether this final trio deserved their runway shows. Ahead of the season finale, Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi and writer Jason P. When Top Chef convened international contestants for its 20th season and Padma Lakshmi announced her exit from the series, we wondered whether World All-Stars was the end of Top Chef as we know it and now Project Runway’s 20th season, with its similar all-stars format and often-inexplicable judging, has us wondering if Bravo’s other stalwart tournament needs a refresh, too. Nearly 20 years later, they’re Bravo’s only remaining competition series, and both have become legacy institutions in the reality-TV space. In the early aughts, before Bravo became synonymous with Real Housewives, Scandoval, and the Andy Cohen empire, the cable network built on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s unexpected cultural omnipresence with Top Chef and Project Runway, a pair of competition shows ostensibly centered on, respectively, cutting-edge cuisine and high fashion. Project Runway is increasingly an exercise in hoping for moderate success, for both the contestants and production.
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