<![CDATA[Jezebel: mychael knight]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png <![CDATA[Jezebel: mychael knight]]> http://jezebel.com/tag/mychaelknight http://jezebel.com/tag/mychaelknight <![CDATA[Project Runway Is Back; Hopefully So Is Its Edge]]> This Thursday, the long waited sixth season of Project Runway will air on TV. But can the show weave the same magic it once did?

Some fans are worried about the ads that Lifetime has produced, reports Jim Farber for the NY Daily News. Instead of bitchy, campy snippets of designers arguing, the Runway spots, Farber writes, feature the contestants "bathed in tender light and serenaded by Yanni-soft music." Farber says that some bloggers are crying that "Lifetime is going to KILL" the show.

But the judges of PRNina Garcia, Tim Gunn, Heidi Klum and Michael Kors — have confidence in the core concept. In roundtable conversation, Klum tells Newsweek: "I think so many people are afraid of us moving to L.A. But honestly, I've always said that we can shoot Project Runway on the moon, because we're sort of in our own Project Runway world." And Gunn adds: "We were only there for a couple of days and I was reminded that before World War II, Hollywood was really the center of American fashion."

One thing that Lifetime is definitely doing right? A first-ever two-hour special Project Runway All-Star Challenge, which airs August 20. Fan faves Santino Rice, Daniel Vosovic, Uli Herzner, Mychael Knight, Jeffrey Sebelia, Chris March, Sweet P and Korto Momolu will come back and compete against each other for a $100,000 cash prize.

But as Farber points out, PR's former network, Bravo, is "finely attuned" to "the nuances of greed, vanity and false pride"; whereas Lifetime is "rigidly sincere." We'll have to wait and see whether PR is as bitchy and addictive as we remember… or if the new network (and the California sun) have mellowed its message.

'Project' Revamp: Leaving Its Edgy Bravo Home, Will 'Runway' Be The Letdown Of A Lifetime? [NY Daily News]
Auf With Their Heads: The ‘Project Runway' Roundtable [Newsweek]
'Project Runway': We Catch Up With 8 All-Stars [EW]

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<![CDATA[Coming Soon: Team Sparklevamp Capitalism!]]>

  • Twilight clothing is happening — it's only surprising it took so long. The duds go on sale at Nordstrom in October. Selina Khan, on the right, looks like she just doesn't care about Edward or Jacob, bless her heart. [People]
  • Amazon.com is acquiring Zappos.com. The cost? $847 million. [NYTimes]
  • Wonder Woman Lynda Carter will be live in person at Talbot's for Fashion Night Out, a night of special sales and events designed to encourage consumers to shop at the start of New York Fashion Week. Carter will be at Talbot's Madison Avenue store to promote her new CD, "At Last." [WWD]
  • Meanwhile, France is one step closer to allowing shops to open on Sundays after the bill was narrowly approved by the senate. Mon dieu! [WWD]
  • Barney's New York took down a disturbing window display that featured bloodied mannequins, posed as though they were struggling against assailants. And here we thought Simon Doonan's judgment was impeccable in all things. [NYDN]
  • The actress Melissa George has invented a new product which she calls "HemmingMyWay." Geddit! The Grey's star, along with her business partner Kara Harshbarger, plans to sell clear adhesive strips with snaps affixed that allow a wearer to quickly adjust the length of her pants when she changes from flats to heels. Look, it even has a Facebook page! [WWD]
  • Amy Winehouse's father wants her to license her name to a perfume house for £500,000. [Telegraph]
  • And Lily Allen is doing a line of jewelry. "I love jewelry, always have done," explains the pop star. [Vogue UK]
  • A 1994 Arte documentary about Yves Saint Laurent, Tout Terriblement, is being released on DVD. [WWD]
  • In London next Thursday, a Chanel-themed flash mob has been announced. Anyone wearing Chanel, or Chanel-esque outfits should meet like-minded sartorial souls at St. Pancras International Station at 6 p.m. [UK Elle]
  • 19-year-old Georgian Sean O'Pry topped Forbes' list of the highest-earning male models. There are pictures. [Forbes]
  • Retail executives' pay fell last year. The 10 top-earning executives compensation packages decreased by 9.4%. [WWD]
  • Could Fabiola Beracasa really be developing a reality show in the style of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, where she flies around the world looking for...unusual fashion? [P6]
  • Daniel Vosovic, Santino Rice, Korto Momolu, Sweet P, Jeffrey Sebelia, Uli Herzner, Mychael Knight and Chris March are the designers returning to Project Runway for a second helping of Tim Gunn's soothing drone and Heidi Klum's adenoidal exhortations. Project Runway: All-Star Challenge will be broadcast as a two-hour special before the show's sixth season premiere. All we want to know is whatever happened to Andrae? [People]
  • Jeremy Scott is yet another designer heading to London Fashion Week this fall. Though based in Los Angeles, Scott normally shows in Paris. [WWD]
  • MAC cosmetics is ending its sponsorship of fashion week, and instead holding its own competing roster of shows at Milk studios in Chelsea. Proenza Schouler, Erin Fetherston, and Alexander Wang have already committed to slots in the lineup. [NYTimes]
  • Alex Wang on his day off, according to his friend Ryan Korban: "We do a lot of driving around - he loves driving. So we drive out to Brooklyn and just kind of cruise around. He's always got the music blasting and he's singing. It's surprising, but he's a really good driver. He's screaming and the music is to the max and he's drinking an iced coffee, but he's completely steady." [W]
  • Esteban Cortazar is out at Emanuel Ungaro, WWD is reporting. The young Colombian designer had clashed with the house's management over advertising and the brand's direction; his collections met with mixed reviews, and at last month's resort show, the Ungaro CEO refused to say if Cortazar would be kept on. No successor has yet been named. [WWD]
  • The quirky downtown gallery Partners & Spade got written about in the Times. Oh well — nothing good lasts forever. [NYTimes]
  • Ozwald Boateng, the Ghana-born, London-based all-round spectacular menswear designer and tailor, made two suits for President Obama and hand-delivered them to the American ambassador to Ghana during the president's recent visit. If Obama wore Boateng's suits, nobody would call him frumpy, ever. [WWD]
  • Another story about Crocs and what they mean. [LATimes]
  • The New York Economic Development Corporation-run industry site NYCFashionInfo.com, which collates insidery arcana like designer showroom contacts and market week dates, might start accepting advertising and publishing more "lifestyle content" because it only attracts 2,000 visitors a month. [WWD]
  • Apparel sales in England in the month of June rose by 1.2%. [FT]
  • Skechers lost $5.9 million in the second quarter. The result was actually better than analysts had expected. [WWD]>
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<![CDATA[Imagine: A Project Runway Inauguration Dress For Michelle Obama]]> The Daily Beast issued a challenge to former Project Runway designers: Design an inauguration gown for the First Lady. (At the time, Obama's win was not confirmed.) And! As with all ProjRun challenges, there was a twist: The designers could only use Laura Bush’s 2005 Inaugural Ball dress, an American flag, burlap potato sacks and $10 worth of trims of their choice. The resulting sketches? A mixed bag: Partly hideous, partly hilarious and partly high fashion. But we poked around the designer's websites and found dresses from their collections that Ms. Obama might actually wear. The sketches and our choices, after the jump.

Season 1 winner Jay McCarroll says of his burlap cocktail-length dress, "We need to live within our means and get back to basics."


But for his spring 2007 collection, Jay designed this citrusy gown and this metallic gown. Either one could be an elegant choice for Michelle Obama!

Season 1 finalist Austin Scarlett created this washed burlap strapless gown.


Here's a more formal choice, from Austin Scarlett's line, Kenneth Pool.

Season 2 semifinalist Kara Janx made a dress "about patriotism and change, with a pop culture spirit."

But can you picture Michelle Obama in one of Kara's famous kimonos? The gold trim adds a more glamorous touch.

Malan Breton of Season 3 cut the stars out of the flag and used them to highlight his dress.

But a more simple, regal shape from his 2009 spring collection seems more fitting for a First Lady.

Mychael Knight, Season 3 semifinalist, created a "youthful and sexy" gown. "She’s becoming the first lady, not an old lady!"

Mychael's designs are so youthful and so sexy (think: leather bikinis) that the only appropriate gown to be found was this one from an old episode of Project Runway. Still, Ms. Obama could rock this.


Alison Kelly of Season 3 says she "thought back to the Great Depression and remembered Coco Chanel’s dropped waist silhouette" when she dreamed up this black gown.


But what if she took this top from her line, Dahl by Alison Kelly, and lengthened it into a dress? It has a quiet yet impactful "wow" factor. And Michelle Obama has great shoulders.


LOL. This is from the lovable Chris March, Season 4. Due to dire financial straits, "The first lady will have to resort to wearing a barrel. Of course, hers will be glamorous."

Checking out Chris March's site, it was tough to find anything Michelle Obama-appropriate. This was the best I could do. It's very "after the revolution," no?

Rami Kashou of Season 4 used draping, of course. The stripes are awfully distracting, though.

Could Michelle Obama wear a Rami Kashou divine golden goddess number instead?

Last, but not least: Season 5 winner Leanne Marshall. Her gown features a dramatic collar and "a very full, pocketed sweeping skirt of 50 horizontally paneled potato sacks." Not bad, but…

This beautiful dress from Leanne's final collection would be much, much better.

The Ball Gown Challenge [The Daily Beast]

Related: Jay McCarroll
Austin Scarlett
Kara Janx
Mychael Knight
Dahl By Alison Kelly
Chris March
Rami Kashou
Leanimal

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<![CDATA[Copy Cats]]> So remember Victorya's winning dress from Project Runway on Wednesday night? The one that Nina Garcia oohed and ahhed over, tirelessly? Seems it bears an uncanny resemblance to a dress designed by a different Project Runway designer — and from another season no less. To the left, a dress designed by Michael (now Mychael, whatevs) Knight for an episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen. Click on the tag to compare it to Victorya's dress.

victorya0110.png

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