Project Runway...you're either IN or you're OUT!
I watched a new episode of the fourth season of Project Runway. The show aired on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 9:00pm. Project Runway is shown on cable television on Bravo. The premise of the show is that a group of fashion designers are chosen to compete each week with a new challenge that incorporates designing and sewing an outfit. Each week, one contestant is eliminated based on the judge’s decisions. The show’s main host is supermodel Heidi Klum and the co-host is Tim Gunn, who now has another show on Bravo called Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style. Regular judges are Michael Kors, who is described as a “notable fashion designer” and Nina Garcia, who is the fashion editor of Elle magazine. This week’s show in particular featured a surprise guest judge, Sarah Jessica Parker, well known from the show Sex and the City. The lineup of judges is a familiar formula that several other reality TV shows have, for example America’s Next Top Model and American Idol. The judges are supposed to be experts in the field and typically are brutally honest and harsh when critiquing the contestants. This formula creates the humiliation element that Mendible argues is “an essential of the success of sub-genre “survival” shows.” The contestants pour all of their energy and personal creativity into designing and creating an outfit for the judges to cut them down without any personal regard, all for our entertainment. In the episode I watched, the judges told one of the contestants that his outfit looked like an “80’s nightmare,” which made the contestant cried in front of everyone.
The show seemed to be aimed mostly at women, and middle to upper-class people who are interested in fashion and beauty products. The advertising within the show was pretty blatant. Heidi recited to the contestants what they could win, “a Saturn, a spread in Elle magazine, $100,000 from TRESemme Professional Hairline, and a chance to sell your line on Bluefly.com.” The brand names for these prizes were shown in various ways, Tim Gunn mentioned that the models would get ready in the “TRESemme salon” and there were shots of the hair products being used, the brands were also painted on the walls of the studio in which the contestants were filmed working. During the commercial breaks there were more advertisements for these same products in addition to other things like a bridal collection.
These advertisements and the judges all seemed to reinforce that there is one way to be beautiful and hip. One of Heidi’s lines that she says every show is, “in fashion you’re either in or you’re out,” suggesting that if you don’t present something that the judges like (judges who create fashion and edit magazines catering only to thin, “perfect” looking women), you are not going to make it. One thing I found interesting is that the clothing models this season, although are still very slim, are not as skinny as the last season’s. So, perhaps the show is trying to represent women better (although the models are still very thin).