Project Runway at the Daytime Emmy Awards

Y'know, it's really a testament to the show that pretty much everytime there's a red carpet event now, you can bank on at least one PR designer's wares making an appearance. Perfect for us because it gives us more dresses to rip discuss.

Shelley Hennig arrives at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards wearing a Nick Verreos from his Spring 2008 Collection


Cute! If you hadn't told us, we probably wouldn't have guessed this was an Uncle Nick.


We like the cap sleeves and the heavy band around the neckline and the open back. All very simple, but well done and in an eye-catching fabric.




Nikolaki (by Nick Verreos and David Paul) Spring 2008 Collection

More pics:



Actress Heather Tom arrives at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards wearing a gown designed by Jack Mackenroth. The pair also decided to auction the dress off to benefit three HIV/AIDS charities - amfAR, National Association of People with AIDS, and San Antonio AIDS Foundation. People will be able to go to the Clothes Off Our Back site to bid for Mackenroth's gown.


Pretty and eyecatching and feminine. It reminds us a little too much of Chloe Dao but that's not his fault.


The only critique we have is that he used a print and with that design, it's a little busy and fussy looking.



Still, when so many designers run screaming from prints - especially in red carpet dresses - we have to give him props for sticking with them. He loves prints and he knows how to use them.

More pics:


[Photos: WireImage/ContactMusic/Celebutopia]

PRG at the TRESemmé Finale Party

Bitches, we are EXHAUSTED. And just a tiny bit hung over. We had a blast last night. In fact, for whatever reason, this was one jammin' finale party compared to the other reality show wrapups we'd been to (although those Shear Genius bitches run a close second). Apparently, Season 4 was the drinker's season. Although that doesn't explain the tipsy designers from Seasons 1, 2 and 3. Even Tim himself was feeling mighty mellow by the end of the night.

Let's start at the very beginning because someone once told us it's a very good place to start.

We arrived at the Tribeca Grand a little after eight with unofficial PRGayBoy #3, Emmett McCarthy and Official PRGay Photographer, the commenter you all know as "Gorgeous Things." Seriously. We told TRESemmé we needed to bring our own photographer and bitches, we are so money that they agreed to send us another ticket. We have ARRIVED, darlings!

In fact, we couldn't help but be a little sentimental and nostalgic about the whole thing. This was (believe it or not) only our second PR finale party. It's funny, it was the finale party for Season 3 that really started the ball rolling for us. That was the night that we met Laura and Peter for the first time and that was the night that Tim uttered the immortal (to us, anyway) words "You're in the inner circle now!"

Well, not to brag or anything (okay, just a little) but last night, what we assumed had been a simple polite compliment on Tim's part eighteen months ago felt like it had really come true. We really ARE in the inner circle! Or maybe just slightly outside it. Our reputation had preceded us and thanks to the shameless whoring on our parts, everyone there seemed to know who we were. Oh, don't get us wrong. It certainly wasn't OUR night by any stretch of the imagination. No, the night clearly belonged to Rami, Jillian and Christian.

Still, when Andy Cohen, the Senior VP of Production and Programming for Bravo comes up to you and says "You guys are fucking HILARIOUS!" can you blame us for being a little proud? Or when Tim broke away from the endless parade of interview and paparazzi requests just to give us both a big hug and kiss and then immediately, in as soto a voce as one can manage in a room full of screaming photographers took us aside and said "Did you see that Gawker piece on me? Totally untrue! I was never there! I can tell you I was home that night. ALONE." Tim darling, consider us your official debunkers of hanging-out-in-gay-bars-frequented-by-escorts rumors.

Anyway, we're tired and this post is all over the place, isn't it? As we said, this party was bigger and louder than previous ones. The amount of press there was kind of amazing. We couldn't get NEAR any of the S4 designers for quite awhile because all of the ones in attendance: the final 3, plus Sweet P, Chris (who seemed really overwhelmed by the whole thing), Ricky, Jack, Carmen, Kevin, and VictorYA were behind the velvet ropes (and the big scary bouncers) answering interview requests and posing for pictures. So we decided to start drinking instead.

In our mingling travels, as we tried to flag down the occasional spring roll or Cosmo, we ran into Nora Caliguri from S1 who looked absolutely adorable (still a shock to see her with long blonde hair) in a kickin' gold metallic cocktail dress that's part of her upcoming line. "Upcoming line?! You HAVE to let us feature it on the blog!" She's so cute because she just tilted her head and said "Really? You guys would do that?" We also met her equally as cute sister who was wearing an equally as cute dress from Nora's line. We complimented Nora so much on her Miu Miu boots that we actually took a picture of them.

We also ran into Kayne, who... um, had a somewhat understated response to our presence but who nonetheless graciously posed for some pictures. Christian's model Lisa was there in a Christian Siriano original and it was (of course) fierce. She was sweet and posed for a couple photos with us, as did Ted Allen of Queer Eye and Top Chef fame. Confession time: Tom
has a total crush on him and he barely did anything to hide it. Miss Jay McCarroll was also making the rounds but one thing we learned from seeing him in action at Bryant Park is, the press STILL loves him and they clamored after him as if he was the winner of Season 4.

In our travels we met Faran from the Fashionista blog and literally bowed down before her. It became a mutual admiration society as we all told each other how fabulous they are and how much each blog was loved by the others. She is adorable and very kind and if you bitches aren't checking her blog out on a daily basis, you're crazy.

We went around harassing all the models for pictures but let's face it, they're models. They LOVE to pose for pictures. To a gal, every single one of them was sweet and gracious. We spoke to Lauren for a bit and wondered where Jillian was since she was nowhere to be seen. Lauren told us that the two of them had been in a car accident that day (!) but they were both fine. Which proved to be true when Jillian showed up not long after looking absolutely gorgeous. She really is a very pretty girl and had on a beautiful dress that made us wonder if she was cold.

At one point, Ricky came over to us and asked for a piece of gum. Now, we had heard through the grapevine (okay, from Laura) that Ricky thought we were mean and being the forward bitches that we are, we called him on it. "We're not mean! It's all said with love!" He laughed and said that he loves what we do and doesn't care what people say about him because he knows it's all just entertainment. Now bitches, THAT is the correct attitude to have.

With the mingling out of the way and the magic hour of ten p.m. approaching, we headed into the theater to watch the show. Unfortunately, we spent so much time mingling that there were no seats left and we had to stand in the aisle. We didn't mind, we were just thrilled once again to watch the finale with the very designers who appeared in it. Tim, on the other hand, was nonplussed. "You don't have seats? But you're the Project RunGay Boys!" We love you, Tim.

Everyone settled in, Tim gave a brief speech about how thrilled he was with the way the season played out and how proud he was of the designers. The lights dimmed and we were once again reminded of just why we spend so damn much of our time blogging about this show: because we love it. The excitement in the room was palpable and Christian was clearly the star of the night because practically every line he uttered (and let's face it, he got some good ones last night) was met with raucous cheering and clapping, mostly from the section Jack was sitting in.

Yes, we noticed our 2-second cameo and we felt like we had magically been sucked into our televisions screens. We poked each other excitedly at the sight of our big heads onscreen and grinned from ear to ear. Of course, no one else noticed.

During the commercial breaks, the sound was cut out and the room buzzed with chatter. Every time the breaks ended, multiple shushings hissed from around the room. It was just so much fun and the feeling in the room was positively electric.

Each collection was met with applause, as if we were all sitting in the tents watching it live. This crowd was PUMPED. When it came time for the judging, the press was allowed into the room and they all pointed their cameras at the finalists in the front row. People reacted with shock when Jillian was let go so abruptly but everyone gave her a round of applause. Of course, the room EXPLODED when Christian won. In fact, we didn't hear the last 5 minutes of the show at all.

After that, things wrapped up pretty quickly. They handed Princess a check so obnoxiously large that it looked like he was having trouble holding it. We made our way down front and introduced ourselves to Jillian, who of course, already knew who we were. She is sweet and funny and when we told her that we were rooting for her and thought her collection should have won, she seemed genuinely touched by that. She told us she's working on eliminating her monotone and we laughed and told her not to change a thing. She introduced us to her business partner, who told us that she was launching a line and gave us his business card. You can bet that we'll be checking back on that for all the details.

We also met Carmen who, we have to say, is absolutely beautiful in person. She was, after all, a model. She complimented Gorgeous Things on her hair and we immediately turned around and complimented her on hers, which was done up in a big bouffant-y bun. Jack came up and called us bitches in that I'm-joking-but-not-really way and we just laughed him off and told him he loves the attention.

After that, we headed out to the lobby where quite a few people were visibly, deliciously drunk. We said our goodnights to Jay and Nora, Kevin and Ricky and anyone else who crossed our paths. Tim was once again swamped by cameras as was (unsurprisingly) Christian, so we never got a chance to get near either one of them to send them our well wishes. Instead, we headed out to the tables where the swag bags were and snatched far more than our alloted amount.

Hey, we never said we had class.

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[Photos: WireImage/Ann Steeves-ProjectRunGay]

Sew Not Over: Elisa and Jack

"I evoked and handed over via the wrappings of couture, three characters from a decade's worth of marionettes, puppet, dolls, and other such sculptural beings. These three who exist within the mythic realm of The Hunger World were chosen specifically for Project Runway because of their stories and connotations. "The Mistress of Tenderness" is all in white Ingeo, a completely sustainable fabric spun from corn sugar. She is aflutter with kisses of pure tenderness from her heart and beneath her skirts. "The Healer" is strengthened with a lifeline of a blossoming lotus machine drawn through her body, and her dress is constructed from one seam in organic bamboo. "The Falling Star" is for all to make a wish upon. Her monofilament halter gown is fabricated from a non-sustainable jersey, encrusted with Swarovsky crystals, and has a "fire-licked" hem. She is a fashion embodiment of what I would like to see manifested in the immense power of the fashion industry: conscientious consumerism, green as the new luxury, individualism as the ultimate accessory."

Ooookay.

Well, it's pure Elisa, isn't it? Lorenzo likes the first look but Tom's not with him on that one. It's way too St. Pauli Girl. The only one we both like is the second look, which is unique and striking. Love the color, the hoodie and the flower embellishment. It's hippy-dippy chic, which is what Elisa does best. Lorenzo doesn't like the third look but Tom kindasorta does. It just needed to be fitted better, but the combination of Swarovski crystals and rough edges was interesting.

"I was really drawn to the oversize floral print and that became a source of inspiration for all the looks. The neck of the floral dress is reminiscent of a blossom. I tied in the navy dress with the floral fabric as a trim and the gold-knit dress keeps the same feeling and color palette. I think all three looks are really wearable and work well together."

First things first: we really don't like the styling here. The heavy boots and gloves are all wrong with these basic, girly dresses. Having said that, we don't even like these basic, girly dresses all that much. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. They're just okay as far as we're concerned. Tom likes the print on the first one even if he's not on board with how Jack used it. Lorenzo doesn't like the print at all. We're both agreed that the proportions in the sleeve and collar are a little wonky and it looks poorly fitted in the bust. Second look: we both love the jacket. It would look great paired with...anything but this dress. Seriously, there's (to use a Gunn-ism) an incongruity in these two pieces. The dress looks too large and voluminous under that jacket. Skirt too full and sleeves all bunched up. We both kinda like the third dress but the styling really overwhelms it. Take away the Dr. Zhivago boots and the Miss Piggy gloves and it's a cute dress with some nice detailing. That print from the first dress works better as trim.


[Photos: Bravotv.com]

PR Bitches at Fashion Week

Happy Fashion Week, kittens. While we wait for the next episode to find out who's showing, let's take a stroll through the tents and see which PR bitches showed their faces to the camera.

First up, Mrs. Seal makes an appearance on the runway for The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show in a skimpy little slip dress by Marc Jacobs.

Here's a bit of info on the show:

"The Red Dress—the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness—was designed to build awareness that women are at risk for heart disease, and motivate them to take action to reduce their risk. Follow The Heart Truth and learn about heart disease in women this February, and throughout the year, through a series of exciting events taking place across the nation."

When we first saw the pictures of this dress, we weren't too keen on it, but common sense prevailed and we realize that it - and she - looks fabulous. It's got a sexy, disheveled, JBF feel to it while giving the illusion that it shows more than it actually does. Nicely done, Miss Jacobs.

Heidi? You can start aging now. No one will hold it against you.

Next up, Princess Puffysleeves makes an appearance in the front row at the Perry Ellis show...


and at the Rubin Singer show:

He looks fierce. We couldn't pull off an outfit like that (or pull it on, for that matter), but he's rocking it.

Also, several bitches made their presence known at the Na-Be by Victorya Hong show.


Team Star! Jack, did you make those pants? We want them.


And Jay finally got to meet the object of his obsession all season. Oh to have been a fly on the wall for that convo.

And yes, darlings, we WILL be getting to Victorya's collection very soon. In the meantime, a taste:


[Photos: WireImage/GettyImages]

Someone put on their bitchpants that morning.

Miss Mary Jack Mackenroth shot his mouth off to the Advocate, and bitchy queen that he is, gave us a lot of choice quotes. To wit:

" Let’s just say that there are seven New Yorkers from the show this season and only four of us hang out -- and Chris is not one of them."

"Rami just thinks that he is better than everyone else."

"Her [Elisa's] clothes look a lot better on television than they looked in person. To some of us it was a little bit insulting that she was on as long as she was, because she doesn’t have the skills that we all practiced so hard to be on the show."

"And I don’t mean to sound conceited, but if you’re kind of quirky and like a Jay McCarroll–type character, you can get away with saying some nasty things [in the interviews], because people are like, 'Oh, he’s the quirky, bitchy guy.' But if you’re kind of attractive, you’ll come off as being a really full-of-yourself bitch."

And the ultimate in irony:

"Basically, what happens when you bash other contestants is you look bad."


[Photo: myspace.com/jackmackenroth]

Jack in the City

AfterElton has a fabulous interview with Miss Mary Jack wherein she comments on her departure from the show, friendship with Christian, relationship with Dale, plus crybaby Ricky and everything else you'd want to hear about from Jack:

AE: There was no way you could get treatment and still compete?
JM: The problem is — and they didn't show on this on the show because of time constraints — but I had been to the hospital once. There are very few antibiotics that treat this staph infection and I'm allergic to two. The one that works for me is an IV treatment that is very strong and is administered over a two hour time period. I would've had to have been gone four hour a days and it wasn't not appropriate for me to stay.

AE: What are you doing now? Are you sticking with fashion?
JM: During the hiatus I made a whole line of menswear. I don't really know where I'm going to take that. It takes a ton of money to turn designs into production. I'm kind of just enjoying what comes along with being a D-List celebrity. If I made it to the finals, then I would've been on the B-List. [laughs] I guess I'm on the G-List because of all the gays. [laughs] I've been asked to attend a lot of charity events but at the end of day I need to make a living so I've got to get some source of income soon.

AE: Since I had to wait a whole extra half-hour for our interview [Jack was running late] can you give me some scoop on your cameo in the Sex and the City movie?
JM: It's funny — everyone thinks it happened because of the Sarah Jessica Parker challenge [Parker appeared in and helped judge one episode]. But it actually happened because I had a friend who knew the casting director. My friend called up and said they were looking for a gay guy with a good body and that I should go meet the director.

AE: And what's up with Ricky? Why does he keep crying? Were all of you secretly teasing him when the cameras weren't around?
JM: The thing is he's crying in all his interviews, but we never really witnessed it. He did cry with the one client who lost the weight, but as designers we were watching it [the episodes] and going "My God! He's crying all the time." He's an easy crier, I guess. He seems to cry at the drop of a hat and always be wearing a hat.

[Photo: Frank Louis]

Come back, Jack! Come back!

Well, they finally did it. Those bitches finally put together an episode that made us cry. We'll have PUH-LENTY to say later, but for now, OUTzone has an interview with the muscled one here.

"There’s this moment in the episode where you’re torn about it, and then you take Tim into the hall. What was that conversation like?
Well basically, I’m working on my outfit, and what happens with a bacterial infection is that it spreads really quickly, so initially it was just localized on my face. I was like, you know, looking ugly on TV isn’t my number one dream, but I can deal with that. And I mean, I worked really hard to get to this point. I auditioned twice. I’m not a women’s wear designer. I made a whole portfolio. I made all these dresses. I’m not going home if I can prevent it. But then I got to a certain point where … I’m malformed for one, and two -- once the infection gets advanced enough, it gets systemic and then you start to feel bad.

So I’m in the challenge, I’m worried about my face, they’re filming me. I can’t concentrate on my outfit. Then you start to make stupid mistakes. I’m like, “I can’t, this is not going well.” And then I also had to take into consideration the rest of the cast. If it’s contagious, is it safe? And so as much as I really didn’t want to, I just, finally Tim came up to me and said … he was reviewing, you know he comes by to review everyone’s outfit, and he’s like “So Jack, how’s that going?” and I’m like “Listen, I’m gonna need to talk.” And so we went into the lounge and obviously he can see by looking at me that I have some issues going on and I just think for the benefit of myself and the cast I have to withdraw ‘cause I just, it’s not a good place for me to be here right now. I need to take care of this and I don’t think it’s safe for me to be here. So, I was crying, and it was not cute, but had to go.

What did you feel about Chris March coming back?
I don’t like to badmouth other contestants because that’s just not my style. I understand why they did it, they had to fill a spot and he was the last one off. I don’t really think it’s fair. That’s all."

In other news, Tim's Take makes its triumphant and long overdue return! Also, Michael Kors will now be giving his weekly take on each episode.

Read. Discuss.

UPDATE: And to prove that he's:

a: Doing just fine.

b: Quite possibly the gayest PR contestant ever (and honeys, is that EVER saying something), and

c: A bitch and proud of it, we offer the following, sent to us by Jack himself:


Oh, and the proud bitch part? We quote:

"And tell your readers I have never had a nosejob. Its getting old. I have baby pictures on myspace with the same nose."

God, we love that tatoo'd Muscle Mary.


[Photo: Bravotv.com/Barbara Nitke - Video: Courtesy of Jack Mackenroth]

Santa Gunn

As you know, yesterday was the day Tim Gunn made his appearance at Emmett McCarthy's store EMc2 to sign bobbleheads, greet his legion of fans and to just be Tim Gunn (believe us, that's enough).

Emmett had set up a large white tent in the courtyard behind his store ("It's my own little Bryant Park!") and when we arrived to help with the setup, he and his Brand Director, Dimitry Chamy, had just hung the wreaths and the EMc2 logo. We immediately began criticizing. Hey. It's what we do. "No, no, no. Those gold bows look awful. You should use silver and blue, like the EMc2 colors! Get out of the way, we'll do it."

We're only half-kidding. Anyway, we wrapped fake presents and put EMc2 ribbons on the wreaths (because that's truly the meaning of Christmas: corporate branding), sprinkled some styrofoam snow all over everything and stepped back to admire how fabulous we are. Emmett and Dimitry must have done something during all this, but we were too busy loving ourselves to notice.

Anyway, Emmett's little gay Santa's village came out looking wonderful. All it needed was gay Santa himself. Tim arrived at 1 on the dot and proceeded to apologize profusely for not getting there earlier. We have to say, we fell a little in love with Tim all over again yesterday. It's not that we ever fell OUT of love with Tim; it's just that we see so little of him on Project Runway and we felt that his own show (sorry Tim!) didn't showcase his personality and talents as well as it should have. Seeing him yesterday, we got the full-on Gunn experience: warm, funny, ebullient (It's Tim. We have to use at least ONE 2-dollar word to describe him.), a little dishy, a little bitchy, and yet always, ALWAYS completely gracious to his fans.

And what fans. Butcher, baker, candlestick maker; you name a type of person and they were there yesterday. From the young women, stylishly dressed to impress him, to the older women who see in him a peer, someone who has life experiences and the opinions that come with them, to the gay teenagers who giggled nervously, to the middle-aged queens (who also giggled nervously) to the little kids who looked up at him in awe as he signed their books and bobbleheads, to the straight men, who all - to a man - claimed they were buying the bobbleheads for their wives. Tim greeted them all with equal warmth, listened to their stories, asked questions, and signed, signed, signed away.

We were Santa's Little Helpers yesterday, so we got to witness each brief conversation as we stood behind Tim, directing the line and boxing and unboxing bobbleheads to be signed and we can tell you, he never showed anything less than complete interest in each and every person that came up to him. Even better, whenever there was a lull in the crowd (which wasn't often) we got treated to the MOST DELICIOUS dish from the man. Unfortunately, we promised him that we would never reveal any of it until, and we quote "all the principals are dead and gone." Sorry, bitches. That's just one of the perks of being a PRGayBoy.

We also got to hear his impressions of all the designers this season. But because he's Tim, he was typically diplomatic. He said he loves "All of them...[pause]...most of them." when asked to elaborate, he declined. One thing that just thrilled us: we were talking about Elisa when he said "I agree with what you boys said about her first dress." And then proceeded to quote the post back to us! We don't know what made us happier, that he agreed with our opinion or that he reads our blog closely enough to remember what we said weeks later.

Which reminds us, we were busy working the crowd when what to our wondering eyes should appear but Jack Mackenroth, looking none the worse for wear. "I know who you bitches are!" he said as we went up to introduce ourselves. "It's your turn now, bitches. You're always criticizing us, so let me see what you're wearing. Hmmm." It must have passed muster because he didn't have anything bad to say about our outfits, but he immediately wanted to set the record straight about something. "We DID use pleather on those outfits. You just couldn't see it." We love that these bitches read us.

Jack was typically fun and bitchy and gay, posing for pictures with everyone. Not long after Jack arrived, Kevin and Christian showed up. Lemme tell ya, it's still weird to us when we meet the designers and they know who we are on sight. Kevin waved at us from across the room but Christian was too busy being a SUPERSTAR and working the crowd to pay us much attention. Kevin is much friendlier and laid back than he appears on the show. Christian is a legend in his own mind and you really could carry him around in a totebag. They posed with Tim and as multiple flashes went off, Christian turned to the others and said loudly "You're supposed to change your pose with each picture! Don't you know anything?"

To wrap it up (pun intended), we had a fantastic time yesterday and as much fun as it was to stand by Tim's side all day and to talk to some of the designers, it was equally as wonderful to meet the people who came up to us and introduce themselves as fans. To everyone we met and spoke to yesterday, we cannot thank you enough for your kind words and support.

By the way, Emmett tells us that there are more than a hundred autographed bobbleheads available for purchase, so if you want a little piece of the Gunn, head over to EMc2 and snap one up.

For more coverage of yesterday's fabulosity, check out BPR.

[Photos: Project RunGay]