FOR a genuine pop-cultural phenomenon that’s also a rare thing – a competitive reality show respected by the viewing public, the television industry and the exacting fashion world – “Project Runway,” which returns for its fourth season tonight, has a deadly flaw: None of its winners has become a design star.
Unlike “American Idol,” which spawns actual pop stars who have actual careers, “Project Runway” has never lived up to its essential premise, repeated each week in the show’s opening: “to discover the next great American designer.”
Season One winner Jay McCarroll declined his $100,000 in prize money and the Banana Republic mentorship that went along with it; he spent months after the show couch-surfing and scrambling to put together his own label.
Season Two winner Chloe Dao took her prize money and went back home to Texas and obscurity.
And last year’s winner – Jeffrey Sebelia, he of the ill-advised neck tattoo – has since designed the costumes for the live-action “Bratz” movie (poetically, a job a fellow reality-TV alum Paula Abdul believed was hers, resulting in an on-air meltdown).
In fact, the true winners on “Project Runway” aren’t the contestants at all – they’re the heretofore B-listers of the fashion world who have been embraced by Middle America as the authority on all things relating to taste and style. Michael Kors, Tim Gunn, Nina Garcia, Heidi Klum, and even her husband, Seal – he especially – have all accrued a staggering amount of money and status in the three years the show’s been on the air.
In anticipation of its dubious fourth season, we rank the rewards reaped by the real winners of “Project Runway.”
Nina Garcia
Age: closely guarded
From: Colombia
Day job: fashion director, Elle
Pre-“Project Runway”: worked in p.r. for Perry Ellis, moved to Mirabella before landing at Elle
Post-“Project Runway”: published “The Little Black Book of Style,” which informs you that a white shirt, a little black dress and a trench coat are good wardrobe staples. This advice will cost you $17.95, plus tax.
Fashion faux pas: caught using Elle mag resources to style herself in glamour shots; retroactively caught sitting front-row at 2006 fashion show that featured a piece later ripped off by a “PR” contestant – a swipe that went undetected by Garcia.
Contribution to the lexicon: none
Go-to reaction while judging: you’ve-got-to-be-kidding stare paired with apathetic slouching, to suitably register disgust
Endorsements/licenses: BlackBerry, “my favorite accessory”
Fun fact: Peter Frampton’s daughter was her assistant.
How she is judged: Online postings by viewers indicate they are all scared of her.
Michael Kors (né Karl Anderson Jr.)
Age: 48
From: Long Island
Day job: fashion designer
Pre-“Project Runway”: in 2004, left Celine “as he found it: a bourgeois, conservative French label” (damning faint praise from style.com); formed own line, but SoHo shop shuttered same year
Post-“Project Runway”: just opened new SoHo shop; has 14 stores in North America; will dress Bette Midler when she takes over for Celine Dion in Vegas
Fashion faux pas: taking the trashtastic Jessica Simpson to the Met’s Costume Institute Ball in 2005; calling wardrobe staples like the white shirt and the little black dress “Michaelisms”
Contribution to the lexicon: “matchy-matchy”
Go-to reaction while judging: scrunched nose, pursed lips, physical recoil – all at once, to suitably register disgust
Endorsements/licenses: “Island” Michael Kors fragrance, body glitter, sunglasses
Fun fact: child actor who starred in ad for Lucky Charms cereal (how gauche!)
How he is judged: accused by New York Times critic Cathy Horyn of blatantly ripping off Bill Blass in 2002; accused by Horyn of ripping off Marc Jacobs, himself, in September
Tim Gunn
Age: 54
From: Washington, D.C.
Day job: chief creative officer, Liz Claiborne Inc.
Pre-“Project Runway”: worked at Parsons for 22 years
Post-“Project Runway”: became show’s breakout star; published “A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style”; was offered lucrative contract at Claiborne; was seated front-row at Fashion Week; upgraded to a doorman building.
Fashion faux pas: “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style,” his own Bravo show that was slammed by critics as “pedestrian” and “supercilious”
Contribution to the lexicon: “Make it work!”
Go-to reaction while judging: Gunn only mentors, but typically lowers brows and brings hand to chin when “concerned.”
Endorsements/licenses: None!
Fun fact: hates Crocs and capris
How he is judged: Everyone loves Tim Gunn.
Heidi Klum
Age: 34
From: Germany
Day job: model
Pre-“Project Runway”: best known as a Victoria’s Secret/Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model and for hawking own lines of candy and Birkenstocks in her native Germany; dated Italian race-car magnate Flavio Briatore, who dumped Klum after she got pregnant with their child, Leni
Post-“Project Runway”: ranks No. 3 on Forbes 2007 list of world’s 15 top-earning supermodels; released 2006 holiday single (called “terrifying” by Rolling Stone); just won Fashion Influencer Award at this month’s Accessories Council Excellence Awards in New York.
Fashion faux pas: designs Birkenstocks!
Contribution to the lexicon: “auf Weidersehen”
Go-to reaction while judging: blank stare while waiting for everyone else to weigh in before offering similar opinion
Endorsements/licenses: hawks jewelry on QVC; designs line for infants; sells fragrances “Heidi Klum” and “Me” online; new face of Jordache.
Fun fact: hosts German version of “America’s Next Top Model”
How she is judged: has recently shocked America by telling Oprah she fell for Seal after seeing his “whole package” encased in gym shorts, then admitting that she recently took advice on how to diaper a baby from Britney Spears
Seal
Age: 44
From: London
Day job: singer
Pre-“Project Runway”: last had a hit song with 1994’s treacly “Kiss From a Rose”; eroded from public consciousness
Post-“Project Runway”: released first studio album in four years just yesterday (the day before the Season Four “PR” premiere!); quickly married Klum and had two more children with her; just did joint appearance with Klum on “Oprah” and joint spread in this week’s People magazine.
Fashion faux pas: strenuously artsy cover of 2002’s regrettably titled “Human Being” album
Contribution to the lexicon: none, as rarely heard speaking
Go-to reaction while judging: N/A
Endorsements/licenses: has been named, with Klum, new “ambassador” for Volkswagen
Fun fact: doesn’t comment on facial scars to stoke myth they were part of some tribal ritual, but really he had lupus as a kid
How he is judged: Every time he does a duet with Klum or serenades her during a Victoria’s Secret runway show, his musical cred diminishes exponentially.