As the finale of Bravo’s Project Runway reality show nears, New York magazine has an interesting take on the program's appeal and some predictions. (Could there be a German surprise?)
It’s been suggested that Runway’s success represents the democratization of fashion, part of a new widespread fascination with design, all of which is usually tied in with Michael Graves at Target and the slender beauty of iPods and the metastasizing of home-renovation shows. These are all, no doubt, factors in its larger success, but I think the reason New Yorkers like Runway is because, unlike The Apprentice, with its play-school business challenges, Runway is all about work. Hard work, and the people who are willing to do it, in exchange for a faint promise of rewards but a weekly guarantee of weariness. At its core, Runway fetishizes drudgery, and as we’ve seen this season, there’s no more damning accusation than you didn’t do all the work yourself. The designers, locked away in that harshly lit Parsons dungeon, toil under that damned, remorseless clock as it mocks them with each sweep of its time-lapsed hands. Tim Gunn is the genial jailer, always tut-tutting and tapping his watch. Two more hours, people! Make it work!
Read it all here.
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