Ok, I'll admit it. I really enjoy Project Runway. My Heidi Klum impression is getting pretty good (sadly the Canadian version of PR is no longer; my Iman impression is dead-on). It's fun, it's competitive, but I realize there is a deeper (remember I said "deeper" not "deep") current in it. We get to watch the artistic process in motion. We witness a vision becoming more and more distilled through challenges, as random and asinine as they may be, or perhaps more and more diluted and deluded.
I think the whole thing is marvelous. The transparency of the judges and their biases and motivations, the fact that the public does not weigh in on the competition, it is decided solely by 'experts'. (Although I must say I balk at Jessica Simpson being a guest judge, especially when the dress she wore was particularly heinous.) I love that some designers are clearly more craftsmen and craftswomen than artists and vice versa. And how being a great seamstress or tailor can often disguise lack of creativity while great creativity rarely disguises poor construction (Don't we all know that one in the dance world!)
Like many -- I gather from blogs around the continent -- I am displeased with the result of this last season. There was Mondo Guerra with a clear vision, inspiration, his own style which fits within a certain aspect of fashion, and a lovely personality. If we can think that after an entire season of manipulative TV production bent on making high-stakes drama out of porridge, then there must be something genuine and real about it. For his final collection he fused two extreme ideas into wearable and artful clothing. The clothes were articulate. And I suspect that's a hard thing to accomplish. Over the course of the season, you could witness Mondo envisioning, refining, rethinking his ideas, while keeping the extreme voice of his creations present. I know it's only clothes, but dude I wish I could be "si bien dans mon peau"
But the winner was Gretchen Jones. I'm sure another lovely person, but the producers did manage to find a lot of bitch and insecurity-laced delusional moments to air over the course of her season. Her arc of design was not surprising. Well-done, well-made but nothing that even whispered inspiration. I've heard others comment about her win as an indication of the fashion world right now, thinking of bottom line over artistry in 'these hard times'.
Since when has TV been about bottom line. If it really was about that, it wouldn't exist anymore and everyone would be going to web-shows. (Our TV is currently a very cumbersome and impractical nightstand).
American Idol is churning out over-exposed soon-to-be feat. singers. Let's not talk about the dreckitude (thank you for that new word Andre Leon Talley) of the dance shows. I am sad for the future of Project Runway. I was enjoying watching people create stuff on Project Runway. I felt all sorts of ways I could relate it to my own art form. But really I liked seeing people create stuff....
Well it had a good run. And it'll probably have a couple more seasons before everyone really admits that it sucks.
Oh Heidi, your winner was sad and boring. I'm out.
p.s. I promise no more stupid blog entries like this.
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