• 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]

• Rapper Nas is partnering with Fila. The company will pay for his tour and album, he'll wear their stuff and create a "late-80's"-inspired line. [Adage]
• You will be relieved and delighted to hear that celebrity? socialite? sex-taper? Aha! television personality Kim Kardashian is launching a perfume. "It all started when my mom introduced me to famous perfumer Caroline Sabas from Gras, France. She and I have been working together to create a scent that is uniquely me that I can share with everyone!" [Official Kim Kardashian]
• Renaissance woman, polymath and Strokes-dater Agyness Deyn can add "DJ" to her ever-lengthening resume (which one can only assume is printed on hot-pink paper and doesn't actually exist). [New York Magazine]
• Tan television personality and alleged designer Michael Kors "dishes" on Condi Rice, Anna Wintour and that skintight black tee he always "sports." [Huffington Post]
• Hey, you guys watch The Closer? Me either. Anyhoo, QVC's selling a replica of Kyra Sedgwick's purse. [UPI]

• Project Runway's prolific breeder and steely redhead Laura Bennett brings you swimsuit advice. [Blogging Project Runway]
• Atlanta Jeans gang steals over a million dollars' worth of premium denim. [WWD]
• Kate Moss, Lily Allen, Scarlett, Liv, my brother are all, for some reason, sporting Wayfarers. [Independent]
• Stars also like really, really big watches. So they're never late! [ElleUK]
• Surf-wear company Billabong buys skateboard company Sector 9. One assumes this will upset either skaters or surfers, but maybe they can't be bothered. [News.com.au]
• Hey, you like that cross-dresser from the new Marc Jacobs ads? Good, cause here's more of him. [Style.com]
• New Valentino designer did the old man proud. [Yahoo]
• Oh, yeah...the fancy mascaras that give you longerfulleryoingerbettersmarterextreme lashes? They can also cause glaucoma and blindness. [New York Times]
• Katharine Hamnett channels Baywatch. "Hamnett has linked up with the Environmental Justice Foundation, or EJF, to produce a range of lifeguard-themed organic cotton T-shirts, emblazoned with "Save The Sea", to spread the message about the damage illegal pirate fishing is doing to the world's oceans." [Vogue UK]
• Oscar de la Renta sues Elizabeth Arden over perfume shenanigans. [WWD]
• Runners-up in a duct tame prom dress competition demand a recount, I refuse to use the words "sticky situation." [UPI]
• China is a new source for young fashion talent. [Wall Street Journal]
• "Thursday Styles" discovers that denim is big! [New York Times]
• Concert tees go green. "Fabrics are softer, with organic cotton often supplanting synthetics. Shirts are U.S.-made or crafted in factories that uphold fair labor standards." [USA Today]
• Totally missing the point, The Guardian asks, "who can afford couture?" [Guardian]
• That douche who didn't win America's Most Smartest Model has been cleared of all sexual assault charges. [Page Six]
• Pre-Olympics, Adidas steps up Beijing presence. [WWD]
• Agent Provocateur-designed car (hint:it's pink and black) sells for like 70 grand. [Sassybella]
• Finnish-gnome-David Marrimekko versus big Italian Goliath Dolce and Gabbanna. [Breitbart]
• Goody's expands Ashley Judd line to include plus sizes. [WWD]
• Designer Rachel Roy teams with Grey Goose vodka. So has the bum on my corner! Well, I don't know if it's Grey Goose. [Vogue UK]

• Naomi Campbell has finally been charged for her April freakout at London's Heathrow airport. “Campbell is accused of three counts of assaulting a constable, one count of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress and one count of using threatening, abusive words or behavior to cabin crew, according to reports.” Her court date is set for June 20th; does anyone think that maybe a stint in juvie could set her straight? [The Guardian]
• Christian Dior cosmetics spokesmodel Sharon Stone continues to pay for her ridiculous remarks regarding last week's earthquake in China: Dior is pulling all ads starring the Hollywood wackadoo "from all of the department stores and from all of China". Karma, baby! [NY Times]
• Andre Leon Talley is returning to the Savannah College of Art and Design to speak at the school's May 31 commencement ceremony. Think he'll wear the "floor-length red satin robe and silver crown accented with red 'rubies'" this time around? [Paris Parfait]

• Is Chloe Sevigny is never not working? The Big Love star and Opening Ceremony fashion designer is coming out with a limited edition tome based on her first OC look book. "You can flip all the clothing around. You can kind of, like, mix the heads with the bodies," OC's Humberto Leon tells New York magazine. [New York]
• Stars scheduled to appear at the CFDA awards on Monday: Victoria Beckham, Eva Mendes and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Posh will be in Marc Jacobs, Mendes in Calvin Klein, and Maggie G in Proenza. [Elle UK]
• Laura Bennett, the redhead overachiever from Project Runway has 8 million kids, a clothing line, a huge apartment, and a comic strip in the Village Voice. [Blogging Project Runway]
• Proenza Schouler, who have been nominated for the 3rd year in a row for CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year award, spill all (er, some) in an interview with Fashion Week Daily. These guys must have been nuns in a past life or something. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Patricia Field won’t be applying for welfare anytime soon. The stylist who got her start throwing glitter on the hot-pants of drag queens is now developing a line of clothing for Australian department chain, Myer. [The Australian]
• Beauty may fade, but supermodels are forever. Miles Socha reports in WWD how old-school models are returning to big-time ad campaigns. “Linda Evangelista is starring in Prada, Naomi Campbell in Yves Saint Laurent, Claudia Schiffer in Chanel and Salvatore Ferragamo, Eva Herzigova in Louis Vuitton and Christy Turlington in Escada.” More here: [WWD]
• Need to know how to deal with articles of clothing that have shrunk? The WSJ offers groundbreaking suggestions such as, check the label for cleaning directions, store your receipts in a shoebox, and other things my grandmother told me in 1957. [Wall Street Journal]
• Michael Kors confesses that he used to layer legwarmers: “I not only wore them, I used to wear two or three pairs. Everything was some shade of dusty mauve and rose, what I call 'ishy colors.' At the time I was wearing a burgundy boot.” [Style.com]
• Ugh. Members of the Chinese elite “are willing to spend their savings on designer fashions, seen as the ultimate status symbol in a communist country that is increasingly becoming preoccupied with the trappings of wealth.” [Reuters]
• Coach Inc., plans to open 50 new retail units in China. Um, I’m sorry, but wasn’t there just a devastating earthquake there? [WWD]
• Anthropologie: "[The store's] retail environment is an artful rendition of a French market that creates a mood of discovery and whimsy. While the merchandise is a unique mix of found objects from around the globe, the store is as close to a genuine French flea market as is the French bread sold at Safeway." [Business Week]
• Vogue is prepping a photo shoot starring its own editorial and fashion assistants. Says one source: "...At Vogue, you have to dress like a model anyway, so this probably isn't a stretch for the various women involved." [Fashionista]

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]

• Marie makes Nina Garcia realize she has secret, never-before explored Sapphic leanings. They start a not-so-discreet affair! Just like the fauxmance with Red Lobster dates Santino dreamed up for Tim Gunn and Andrae in Season 2.

• Marie goes all Kim from America's Next Top Model and makes out with the other models in a limo on the way to a major fashion event! Impromptu challenge: Design complementary dresses for a girl-girl wedding!
• The crazytown vibe of the show makes Marie wish she'd never taken up modeling, and she goes running back to the Joffrey School of Ballet. Suddenly, she's prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet. Design challenge: A tutu that's not too too much!

'Project Runway' Employs Lesbian Model [Queerty]

[Full gallery available via Project Rungay.]

Jeffrey Sebelia Spring / Summer 2008 [Project Rungay]

• Laura Bennett — everyone's favorite Bad Mommy — is showing as part of the Met Life Charlie Brown-inspired fashion show. I anticipate she'll try to make Peppermint Patty go all femme and, oh, I don't know, put her in a black dress that hits at mid-calf and has a plunging v-neck. And then — wait for it! — she'll make a giant ruffly collar for Snoopy and get all pissy and defensive when the ruffles collapse when she transports the garment from the space where it was created to the show venue. Also, $10 says she blames Jeffrey Sebellia for pulling the football out from under Charlie Brown. September 7 at 6 pm, Bryant Park.

• Alison Kelly — OMG how much did you love Alison? Like, so much, right? I still cry into my pillow at night that she was sent home during the garbage challenge for making her, in Tim Gunn's word, Zaftig model look, well, particularly doughy. She was so wronged in that episode: Vincent's model couldn't even walk in her dress! And it was ugly! Sure, Alison topped off her design with a Minnie Mouse bow made of human hair, but still... Anyway, I'm super excited to see what Alison has in store for us at Fashion Week. We think she has a very young and fresh and pretty eye. Apparently her collection is inspired by some sort of bullshit about like, China in the 1920's, blah blah blah. But I am 100% confident that whatever she does will be pretty and lovely and modern. If you want to attempt to crash, she'll be showing on September 6 at 12:30 pm at the Prince George Ballroom on 25th St.
• Malan Breton — Oh Malan, Malan, Malan. That voice! That hair! That laugh! I'm sorry that Tara Connor didn't appreciate your tree trunk dress. But look what happened to her. I love you, you crazy bastard. September 12 at 1 pm, 110 W.19th St.
• Keith Michael — Listen Keith, I always thought you were an arrogant prick. But I don't think you were a cheater. And I'm sad that you got called as such. Because you are mad talented. In fact, I think had you not been wrongly booted off, you would have made it to the final three. That dress you made out of, what, curtains? Fucking gorgeous. I'm a little worried, however, that showing in notoriously douchey nightclub Cain is not going to do much to help erase your bad-boy persona, but I'm optimistic that the clothes will be good. Please, for the love of Andrae Gonzalo, let the clothes be good. September 12 at 8:30 pm, 544 W. 27th St.

Project Runway Designers At Fashion Week [Blogging Project Runway]

Jay McCarroll, Season 1:

You don't think I took the fucking bus to New York the day after I won the show, thinking someone was going to come up to me on the street and say, You're awesome, here's money? I thought that for two years. But I've given up on that....My hands have been creatively crippled for two years—all those fucking eyes on me, reading that I'm a waste on blogs.

Andrae Gonzalo, Season 2:

I tell everyone I'm not a star. I'm a brown dwarf... I was still working [as a waiter] while [the show] was airing. Boy, was that surreal. The guests were freaking out. They were like, 'I can't believe it's you! You have to take a picture!' He gestures to an imaginary plate. "And I was like, Uh, I have this tray.

I felt so cheap and tawdry. They gave me $500 [to be on a reunion special], and I was like, Keep the money. It was just part of my confusion, grasping for the next thing.

In the supermarket, crossing the street, at a restaurant, it's, Whatareyoudoiiiiiiiiiing? Whatareyoudoiiiiiiiiiiing? And I know it comes from a wonderful place, but it feels like, 'Oh, poor you. Are you working?' To this day, I still rattle off a résumé. And then I realized: Nick, they're not judging you.

I'll go some places, especially concerts, and I'll have 15-year-old girls jump on my back or grab my crotch. And I get into grown-up mode, like, Where the fuck are your parents?

What do you have to offer me?