While We Wait...

BPR friend and artist David Gilmore from Pretty On The Outside is back again with his brilliant Cabernet-influenced Project Runway designer sketches. Suede and Keith receive the first POTO treatment. Check them out!

Spectacular speculator Alan Gratz has his weekly in and auf predictions up. Alan is struggling like we are with the measly preview clues, but that doesn't stop him from trying!

Katherine Gerdes has not abandoned us! She's been caught in a move and is just now catching up with her Season 5 recaps. Click here to see her thoughts so far on S5. Look for the return of Katy's Take on BPR next week!

We received a nice note from PR sponsor and blogger Lisa Gilpin of Saturn reminding us that several of your favorite former contestants are blogging Season 5 at Saturn's Rethink Design site. It's tough digging through Bravo's website to find these, but we're here to help! Blogging for Saturn this season are Alison Kelly, Chris March, Jack Mackenroth, Kit Pistol, and Laura Bennett. Go say hello to Lisa and some of your old faves.

Here's an intersting ranking of former Project Runway designer websites at Urlesque.com. We see some glaring omissions!

Jack Mackenroth is such a good guy...

And finally, here's more on the continuing romance between Wesley and Daniel, including a little rule breaking reveal: But the couple broke show rules by communicating with each other the day after the elimination. Nault passed Feld a note, and Feld gave Nault a silver bracelet. "I later got in trouble for that," says Nault, "because it wasn't allowed." Hmmmm. We wonder what Keith Michael would think of all that!

Laura K Checks In

Greetings BPRs! I am having a blast in NYC. First I want to thank my hostess, Roz, who very generously offered to share her apartment while I am here. It is an easy walk to Bryant Park and a beautiful home. I am on her laptop and not completely familiar with how everything works, but I figured it was about time that I checked in.

This morning was Malan Breton's Show. Tbone and I met in the lobby of the tent and joined fellow BPRs, Rie, Travis and Maddie in the line. Soon we were joined by Minx, Nancy T and her daughter Sarah as well as Diana Eng and Katy Gerdes. Here is Tbone with Maddie and Diana.



After we were seated we spotted Emmett McCarthy, Angela Keslar, Season Three model Katie Champion, Freddie Leiba (Trivia: Freddie Leiba was a judge on which episode?) and Fern Mallis. Emmett joined us for a while before the show began. He is having a big clearance sale at EMc2! I'll try to get there tomorrow.

We also greeted Tom and Lorenzo and their gorgeous friend, Anne.

The show was wonderful and the ever-efficient Scarlett had the photos posted into a slideshow for you before I could even phone in a report! Thanks Scar. Nancy T filed her report very quickly too - I am clearly the slowpoke.

Malan should be very very proud of this show. I was at his show in September - which was beautiful of course, but I feel that these designs were even more polished and sophisticated. Also, Malan has that definite "point of view" that we are always hearing about. I suspect that we would know these were Malan's designs even if we weren't told in advance.

After the show we went backstage to congratulate Malan and to meet up with Amanda Fields. Malan was gracious as always and agreed to meet us for dinner later. We also met up with Snowflakebebe - one of the original BPRs!

Amanda was finishing up an interview for an episode of "The Malan Show." Afterward, she joined Tbone and I, Nancy T and Sarah for brunch. It is completely possible that we will see Amanda in the finale show on Friday but she wasn't telling us a thing!

Katy's Take

Season 3 designer Katherine Gerdes returns with her take on Episode 2, "I Started Crying". It's a BPR exclusive!

First things… I have to give props to all the designers for the success of this challenge. I don’t know if you guys have ever shopped at Mood, but $15 does NOT get you much and to be honest I have no idea how they made this challenge work. For a company such as Steve and Barry’s (or Target which I know more about), they have the size and purchasing power to knock the price of fabric down so they can afford a $15 wholesale price, but buying retail fabrics and expecting wholesale garments is really challenging so I give props to all the designers!

Before I get to the reviews, let me put out a blanket statement, so I don’t have to repeat myself over and over again: With the exception of Marion and Steven’s, I thought everyone’s garments look really well executed and properly finished and I imagine this is going to be the case for most of this season!

Also… can I just ask what is up with the hair/styling this season? I don’t know if it’s a new team of stylists or what, but so far it’s been pretty bad this season. I’ve been watching PR this year with a group of girls who are all hair/makeup artists and they cannot stand what is going down the runway (and I’m not talking about the clothing).

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she reviews each of the design's in detail.

Katy's Take - Episode 1

BPR welcomes back Season 3 designer Katherine Gerdes for her exclusive take on Season 4. Katy not only gives us her insight as a professional designer but also as a former contestant. Welcome back Katy!

Season 4: Episode 1 “Sew Me What You Got”

Yeah! Project Runway is back! Hopefully you guys are as excited as I am! Personally, I’m really hoping that the extra time they took to edit and put this season together will make it a much stronger show this time around.

Before I start, I just want to make a quick disclaimer… I don’t know anything about the new show, or any “behind the scenes” details and I’ve never met any of the new designers. I know as much about this season as you guys do, so my opinions are based purely on what I see on Wednesday nights. I’m definitely not looking to offend or tear anyone’s designs apart (Project Rungay is where I go for that… Love TLO!), but I’ll try to explain why I like or dislike the designs as nicely as I can. Please feel free to disagree with me, but as the season goes along, know that I’m not trying to pick on your favorite designer or dislike their designs based on the designers’ personalities.

Thanks a lot to BPR for asking me to do “Katy’s Take” again!

I just have to say quickly, that overall I was really impressed with the construction quality of most of the garments. I wasn’t into many of the actual designs, but the construction looked pretty good for almost everyone!

On with the show:

Click here to continue reading Katy's Take as she responds to each of the designs from the Season 4 premiere.

From The Mailbox

If you look closely you can see my red jacket and big smile in the audience of this photo. I am in between Emmett McCarthy and my husband, Ken. Diana Eng was seated on the other side of Ken. Thanks to the friend who sent this photo!

Meanwhile - there is plenty of news!

Here is Snowflakebebe's AWESOME coverage of Malan's Show.

Here is an interview with Tim Gunn from our friends at Buddy TV.

Broadway World has more photos of 2007 Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole at Malan Breton's show.

Malan's Show was also featured on Bravotv.com.

Minneapolis's hometown designer, Katy Gerdes is mentioned here.

Access Hollywood has a Tim Gunn video and finally...

Here is a little Emmy preview from Laura Bennett and Nick Verreos on MSN.com.

Advice From Katy Gerdes

KG: Hmm....let's see. I guess the most important thing I can think of is to be yourself. They will spot a "fake" a mile away. Also, be prepared to back up your work. Have a reason to everything you do and stick with it. Last year Chloe didn't think I was focused or ready enough, but I was able to back up my work with a customer profile and a reason why everything was there in my portfolio and she ended up changing her mind.

Katy Checks In

One thing we've learned after three seasons of Project Runway is that the designers don't have to win in order to end up as winners. BPR regular Katherine Gerdes checks in with her latest:

I'm crazy busy getting ready for the DIVA fashion show this Saturday! I've got a whole new collection which is going to be "split" into 2 fashion shows coming up, DIVA this week and Voltage April 11th. Don't worry though... I've made the designs work as a whole collection and look good as two smaller shows (that was a tricky one to figure out!). I've also been invited by LVMH to show the entire collection out at Foxwoods CT on march 24th. I'll send you more info on that as I get it.

Click here for ticket information on this Saturday's event. Anyone in the Minneapolis area available to send in a field report? E-mail the team at BPR. Good luck Katy!