Project Runway: All Stars (Season 2)

Starring: Carolyn Murphy, Georgina Chapman, Isaac Mizrahi, Joanna Coles

Creator: Eli Holzman

Genre: Reality, Competition, Fashion

Rating: B-

I have to confess that while I do really enjoy Project Runway, I have more mixed feelings regarding Project Runway: All Stars.  While I still like the contestants - although I do kind of question just how some of them made it onto Project Runway in the first place let alone the All Stars installment - I really miss the chore people of the original series - Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors, and Nina Garcia.  Nothing against the people that they bring in for the All Stars, but we just don't love them as much.

Season 2 of All Stars features cast members from every season of Project Runway up to season 9, with the exception of season 4.  What I did like about this is that they had four runner ups this season, although they also had people who came in 10th and 11th on their original season, which contributes to some of the begging the question as to how some of these people are All Stars.  Despite that, though, as the season progressed I really started to like all of the remaining contestants.  I didn't know all, or really most, of them from their original season, but once the weaker designers were weeded out I really came to enjoy most of them and their esthetic.

I have kind of mixed feelings about the finale.  I really liked two of the designers who made it to the final three, but I wasn't really a fan of the third designer.  In the end, while I did like the person who won, it wasn't necessarily the person who I wanted to win.  I also kind of questioned the way they rated the first and second runner up, as I really thought that the person who came in third probably should have won, and the person who won should have come in second.

I did like the overall challenges of this season, with my favourites being the avant-garde androgynous look and the graffiti art challenges.  I was a bit disappointed by the overall celebrity judges.  There were a couple that I thought were great, but overall it seemed a bit subpar for the series.  A bit of a disappointment, really.

Project Runway Australia (Season 4)

Starring: Megan Gale, Alex Perry, Claudia Navone, Peter Morrissey

Creator: Eli Holzman

Genre: Reality, Competition, Fashion

Rating: C+

The fourth season of Project Runway Australia  is, much like all seasons of instalments in the Project Runway franchise, follows a number of designers - primarily from Australia (although two contestants came to Australia from elsewhere, one from San Francisco and one from London), and primarily in their early-to-mid twenties - as they compete to be titled the best designer.

Um., so yeah.  While I really enjoy the American instalments in the Project Runway franchise I wasn't a huge fan of the Australian one.  There was a general culture issue - the big names in celebrity guest judges were names that I had almost entirely never heard of before, and thus was never really wowed or amazed by - nor did I make the link between the challenge and the guest judge, although that's my fault and not the show's.

The season's biggest flaw, in my opinion, was the general unlikeability of the contestants.  There were a few that I did like and found myself rooting for, but for the most part they were all whiny, annoying individuals who seemed to be just out of fashion school.  They often seemed to be either amateurs or costume designers, and as such watching them week after week after awhile got rather dull.  I also disagreed with the winner, whose collection overall I thought was probably the weakest.  In all, I doubt I'll watch the next season (if there is one) of Project Runway Australia.

Project Runway (Season 10)

Starring: Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors, Nina Garcia

Creator: Eli Holzman

Genre: Reality, Competition, Fashion

Rating: B

I really enjoyed the designers on the 10th regular season of Project Runway, even if I also absolutely hated some of them.  If you're not familiar with the show, the series takes a group of aspiring designers (this year 16), puts them through a series of tasks (this year 12), eliminating designers along the way.  At the end of it all, the top designers are given the opportunity to create a collection for Fashion Week with the best collection winning and presumably pushing forward the careers of the winning designer.  Along the way there are a vast number of celebrity guests judges, ranging from people in the fashion industry, to famous business owners, to actors and singers.

This year's guests judges included Lauren Graham, Krysten Ritter, Hayden Panettiere, Debra Messing, Hilary Duff, Zoe Saldana, and Jennifer Hudson.  The thing that I really like about this show is that the guest judges are more than just random celebrities come to promote their newest project; they're usually people who are somehow involved in the fashion industry, if only because they have an interest in clothes, and the tasks that they judge on are often somehow tied to their personal life.  As such, they're not typically sitting there gushing about how awesome the designers are; often they can be as critical and harsh as the regular judges.

The designers this season were not all really good designers, nor would I say they were all necessarily sane.  The first few episodes of this show is always about weeding out the weak, and I was really happy to see that the designers who I thought were the weakest overall were weeded out fairly quickly.  Sure there were a few whose personalities I liked, but you could tell that they weren't as strong as some of the others.  Granted, there were a few designers who carried on whose personalities I didn't like, but I did have to admit that they were skilled.

That's actually exactly how I felt about this season's winner.  I really didn't like the person, I hated their attitude although I didn't mind their aesthetic.  I understood why they won, and when it came down to it I have to admit that they did present the best (and most cohesive) show, even if going into the finale I had listed who I wanted to win most in order, and the person who won was at the bottom of that list.  Actually, my list ended up being the exact opposite of how the results went down, but I admit I know nothing about fashion and had based that list entirely on who I liked as a person most.  While I wasn't a fan, the right person probably won, which doesn't often happen in reality tv shows.