• In an apparent attempt to rob the Costume Institute of gravitas, Sarah Jessica Parker will be doing the audio commentary for the Met's latest exhibit. The SATC tour bus frantically adds a stop. [ElleUK]
• Says the curator, “Walking through the galleries listening to Sarah Jessica Parker’s narration will bring a sense of discovery and delight to the experience.” [WWD]
• Prince Charles is apparently inspiring British menswear! [FT]
• Having watched Stylista, we're sure Christy Turlington is eminently qualified to be a Marie Claire editor. [Fashionista]

• Robert Verdi on Michelle Obama's Narciso Rodriguez: "She looked like a lava lamp and we all know that. I didn’t like that light bright dress and I think she could have made a better choice. I like that she wore an American designer, I think she should continue to wear American fashion and speak the style of the nation in her public appearances and then move towards an international flavor." [FabSugar]
• What does the savvy recessionista drive? Why, the Hermès smart car! "The Fortwo édition Toile cars, manufactured by the Como group, are available in 10 colors including gold, indigo and the luxury house’s signature orange. Each is fitted with Hermès leather-covered steering wheels and gear levers, with colors including fuchsia and lime, along with the brand’s original canvas toile." [WWD]
• How better to transport your Christopher Kane radio! [VogueUK]
• "On the surface, the similarities are striking; they were both princesses born in the 1940s in a foreign land. Young and beautiful, the long-haired brunettes soon fell in love and followed their men to the United States where they built a reputation for steely determination and strength." That would be Diane von Furstenberg and Wonder Woman. Obvs. [CNN]
• Lauren Bush — oh, sorry, Pierce — "has been hard at work on her capsule collection of environmentally sustainable clothes since early 2008." [W]
• The all-important vintage couture bubble has yet to pop! [Forbes]
• Apparently Yves Saint Laurent collected stuff from China's Opium Wars. Now it's being auctioned. For a lot of money. [NY Mag]
• Remind me to avoid this Uniqlo stunt: "On Nov. 18 at Military Island in Times Square, a team of Heat-Techies dressed in silver bodysuits will be scanning pedestrians with a thermograph that reveals the coldest parts of the body. The consumers can then walk over to a giant human vending machine that dispenses free products. Press of a button for men’s or women’s clothing sets in motion models inside the machine, who dance a choreographed routine and dispense a package of Heattech innerwear." [WWD]
• Uh oh. Cosmetics, normally recession-proof, are feeling some pain. [FT]
• The Casual Male group is benefiting from Europe's rising obesity rates. [IHT]
• Apparently both PR designers Laura Bennett and Chloe Dao (yes, who won!) will be selling their lines on QVC tonight. Which is good, right? Right? [Blogging Project Runway]
• Following the success (?) of Model.Live, Conde Nast has the video bug. [Fashionista]
• Laetitia Casta is the latest Vuitton muse. [Sassybella]

Childhood: Gunn, raised by a career FBI agent father and a homemaker mother, admits that his parents weren't always sure what to do with their first-born, a boy with a "debilitating" stutter who was painfully shy and preferred the company of adults to his peers. "I became an avid reader, was obsessed with Lego — which was my passion, studied piano and wrote lots," he said. His father, interestingly, worked directly under J. Edgar Hoover as the director's second-in-command.

I don't even know if you need to know this, but here's this FBI guy and here's his first born who is building fantasy buildings in Legos, playing "Mr. Frog Hops" on the piano, and when I got the build-your-own castle for my birthday, I started designing outfits for the soldiers — you know what I'm saying? He coached all of the neighborhood sports teams, none of which his son played on. My father and I had a difficult relationship, but he was always there for me in a crisis. And believe me, I gave him plenty of crises.

Career: When Gunn arrived in New York City in 1983 "running from a crisis," he was still wearing his "D.C. uniform" of "boxy, ample suits." Once in New York, he had "an outer-body experience and realized that no two people on any given street corner are dressed the same. This is a city that accepts you for however you choose to present yourself." (He insists that he didn't have his "real fashion epiphany" until he became the chair of the fashion department at Parsons: "I was 18-months into my time as chair when I had a meeting with Diane von Furstenberg, I'm sure she doesn't even remember this meeting, but I could tell by her quivering eye [that she thought of me] 'I don't know if this is going to work for you in this industry, this particular look.' And I thought to myself, I can't disappoint Diane! So I got a black leather blazer tailored like a suit jacket. That was my solution.") As for how he became chair, well, Gunn, had a bit of a Dick Cheney moment. Tapped to head up the search committee for the top position, he realized that an outsider wouldn't be able to do the job and promoted himself from associate dean.. "The program at Parsons was suffering from dormancy," he said. "The curriculum had been unchanged for 15 years. This was a department in need of love and care." After taking over, he threw out the department's entire curriculum, including its cornerstone program wherein groups of seniors apprenticed to different New York-based American fashion designers and replaced it with a program in which each senior was responsible for creating a collection that would later be presented in a runway show. He says he was vilified for doing so. "I was told by the designers who had worked with students in this program that I was driving the American fashion industry into the ground," he explains. "'Get rid of this man!'," he says the design community exhorted. "He's a bad man! He's a bad influence on the industry!" But the dean at Parsons stood by Gunn — and the very first senior final runway presentation under Gunn's reign, in the spring of 2002, produced the Proenza Schouler debut collection. Julie Gilhart, women's fashion director at Barneys, bought their entire senior project for the department store.

Project Runway: In 2004, Gunn was approached by producers at Bravo about an idea they had to do a reality show about the fashion industry. "I was horrified when they told me what they wanted to do," he said. "I told them, 'This industry is in enough trouble without this!'" But after many assurances, Gunn signed on. As an off-camera consultant. "My having a role on the show wasn't even in the ether" during these early meetings, he recalled. "They said to me, What if we told you we want them to make a wedding dress in two days? And I said to them, So they make a wedding dress in two days! As I tell my students, it will just have to be a make it work moment! But then I qualified my statement and said to them, 'But you should know — [if they make a wedding dress in two days] it's not going to be a Vera Wang.'" Gunn did put his foot down however, when producers broached the idea of hiring a full crew of pattern-makers and seamstresses who would actually make the clothes the contestants sketched. "But who is Heidi going to off then? The seamstress? Oh no," was his response.

The producers worried that the designers wouldn't talk while in the work room, so they asked Gunn to go in there and critique their work and offer advice.

I thought while taping season 1, 'No one needs me. No one needs to see me, hear my voice.' I thought I would going to be cut during edited, that they would just show the designers reacting to whatever I had said. I was too embarrassed to go to the premiere party because I thought for sure they were going to cut me... I watched the season 1 premiere from home the same way I watched The Wizard of Oz as a child: curled up in my bed with a blanket over my head.

As for the shot of energy Project Runway seems to have given to the fashion industry? He's happy. "I'd much rather have people attracted to the industry because of [Project Runway] than because of Sex and the City, which was also a phenomenon," he said of the fact that enrollment in fashion design programs has spiked since Project Runway's debut. And yet he hopes that people realize it's not an easy industry. "Ulli [Herzner, from season 3] called me to lament" the fact that buyers were calling but she couldn't match the demand because, in Gunn's words, "she still insists in having her hand in every part of production. I told her, 'Ulli — let go!' She needs to let go while her name is still on people's mind." Conversely, of season 2 winner Chloe Dao he says: "I have the utmost respect for Chloe. She expanded her business in Houston and did a diffusion line for QVC. It's success, but in her own way." And yet he realizes the limits of his own success garnered from the show: "I was at the Au Bon Pain by where we were doing casting for season 4 and when I walked in, the woman working there screamed, 'Oh my God! You're on TV! You're that guy from Project Runway!' And I said, 'Yes, yes I am.' And then she screamed, 'Everyone look — it's Michael Kors!"

I was actually pretty surprised I won. I wanted it so badly, but I needed it more than I wanted it. I'm just getting started....I'm not looking to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I want to brand myself as well, but I want my clothes to be high fashion, avant-garde. It's easier to take inspiration from something that's creative than to build on something that's not. I don't want to do QVC.

Fortunately for Siriano, he — unlike Project Runway alums Chloe Dao, Jay McCarroll, Emmett McCarthy, and Laura Bennett — won't have to: Barneys New York, Jeffrey's, and Saks Fifth Avenue have all already bought pieces of his. So, yeah — one week after winning and Siriano, on talent and personality alone, is already the most successful person to have come out of the Bravo show. Other reasons to love Christian? He cares about his friends. "The only episode that bothered me was the first part of the finale. They showed all of the other designers with their friends and family, but not me. I had a bunch of friends over, and they cut it out of the episode. I'm not alone out here," says the clearly sensitive soul. Also, he's still friends with model Lisa Nargi. Says Lisa, "He's someone I'm always texting or sending messages to on MySpace. When things calm down for him, we'll definitely see a lot of each other....His clothes are going to be up there with the top designers. They're going to be the clothes that everyone wants to have. He'll be a designer like [John Galliano]."

And how is his life different post-Runway? "I can hardly go out anymore," he says. "Everyone wants to touch me or carry me, which gets really annoying after the first few times. You'd think I was naked the way people look at me....But I get paid to do parties now." Oh and does he say "fierce" anymore? Of course not: His phrase du jour is now "I'm gonna stab you."

Rubbing Elbows, Making Art [The Advocate]

For the Ladies:

First off, what's with the obvious Prada knock-offs with the knee socks and shoes? (Or, uh, are those just actual Prada socks and shoes?) And though we like the look on the left, well, isn't it a little, well, done. Can you not hear the voice of Tim Gunn sighing, desperately, "Don't bore Nina!" when you look at it? And the look on the right is way too school girl uniform (and not in a fun way).

For the Gents:

Say what you will about Daniel, but unlike this season's contestants, at least he knows how to make a pair of fucking pants. Love the little button detail on the zippy pullover on the left (even if the trousers seem a tad snug), and the suit on the right puts the lady-pants Uncle Nick made for Daniel in the makeover challenge to shame.

NYLO Wear by Daniel Vosovic [Blogging Project Runway]