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By Sean Smith
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I only did this show to get laid," says Jay McCarroll. Pity. He'll have to settle for being a new darling of the fashion world--and reality television--instead. McCarroll is one of three finalists in Bravo's sleeper cable hit "Project Runway," a show that pits 12 fashion designers against each other in a cutthroat competition to be the next Valentino or Versace. This Wednesday, after 10 weeks of grueling (and gloriously bitchy) episodes, one contestant will walk away with $100,000 to start a clothing line. Who wins almost seems beside the point. The final three showed their collections during New York's Fashion Week this month, and discovered how famous they've already become. "This has just been f---ing surreal," McCarroll says. "I mean, when a girl licks your face and says, 'I want you to be the father of my children,' that's a bit excessive."
By all counts, "Project Runway" shouldn't be a runaway success. "Fashion was scary," says Bravo president Lauren Zalaznick. "I had immense trepidations about it. What if the designers were bad? What if it was just really boring to watch people cut and sew?" It didn't help that reality TV, as a genre, now feels about as cutting edge as a belly-button ring. And it's not as if the "moral values" voters of America are clamoring to spend time with artsy divas and gay men so flaming that--and we mean this as a compliment--they should carry fire extinguishers.
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But Bravo had managed to jump those hurdles with "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," and "Project Runway" had pedigree: it was being produced by the team behind "Project Greenlight." "Fashion designers are interesting by nature," says executive producer Jane Lipsitz. "They're, well, they're different and original voices you don't normally see on television." For instance, Austin Scarlett, a fave among the show's million-plus fans, claims to have "the smallest waist in three counties" and miraculously got through the entire series with perfect hair and makeup. "That's natural, darling," he says. "I roll out of bed like that."
Scarlett, tragically, didn't make the final cut. In the finale, McCarroll will face off against Kara Saun and Wendy Pepper. The latter is the show's villain, having admitted on camera that she's a back-stabber. "Honey, let's just say they weren't strapping the Homecoming Queen sash around my neck," Pepper says, laughing. "But there must be something weird about the American psyche, because people are fascinated by me. They must sense my conviction." If not her sense of fashion. "Wendy's not really a fashion designer," says Tim Gunn, a chair at Parsons School of Design and the contestants' beloved on-camera counselor. "She's probably great with a Simplicity pattern, but I wouldn't leave her to her own devices." Ouch. "Sorry, Wendy."
Bravo hasn't decided if it will create a second season of "Runway," but it should. Few unscripted shows have this much comedy--and drama. Fewer still reveal the difficult work required to succeed in a creative field. "Project Runway" shows how ugly fashion can be--and that's a beautiful thing.
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