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After Project Runway's shark jumping Los Angeles season, we doubted that its new network, Lifetime, and its new producer, The Real World's Jonathan Murray, could ever restore the show to its former glory and give us back the Project Runway we'd come to know and love. Much to our surprise, however, the just completed Season Seven showed a vast improvement over the travesty that was LA, and we really enjoyed it.
The most important fix was the return of Project Runway to New York City, which solved many of its problems. In LA, judges Nina Garcia and Michael Kors were frequently AWOL, since they're based in New York and both had to be in the city for Fashion Week and other duties. This obviously wasn't a problem during Season Seven, so most weeks we had both of them judging. Similarly, returning to New York City enabled the producers to once again get the types of worthy designer guest judges the show had become known for, instead of giving us Bob Mackie and lots of celebrities with their own vanity fashion lines. This season's guest judge designers included Vivienne Tam, Matthew Williamson and Michelle Obama favorite, Isabel Toledo.
For the most part, Season Seven's designers were a more talented bunch than their predecessors. It seems that unlike last season, where potential drama seemed to be the number one factor in much of the casting, more of the designers from this season seemed to have been chosen based on their design skills and fashion points of view. Yet despite this, the designers were much more entertaining than the previous season's.
So, as we bid "adieu" to another season of Project Runway, let's look back and see the Top Ten of the Top Ten Moments of Project Runway Greatness from this season...
10. Mood sets up a temporary shop outdoors. Not since Christo's "The Gates" has Central Park seen this much fabric. (Episode 1)
9. Mila says, "I still see Seth Aaron's collection as a glamorous Hot Topic." Whereas Mila obviously prefers a grim Mary Quant. (Episode 14)
8. In honor of Easter, an aufed designer and an aufed model are both resurrected. (Episode 11)
7. Heidi, the show's expert on English as a second language, wonders whether Ping really doesn't understand what they're saying, or if she's using it as an excuse. At home, Seal starts questioning Heidi's confusion over birth control. (Episode 2)
6. Mila says that as long as she's ready to defend her collection, "I can't go wrong." We gather Mila is not familiar with the Nuremberg Trials. (Episode 13)
5. When Ping cries over her dress, her model tries to comfort her by saying, "I like it, Ping." We're guessing that in Titanic, her model related most closely to the musicians. (Episode 2)
4. Anthony says Jay's jacket is, "Looking a little bit Michael Jackson." Good thing this isn't the children's challenge. (Episode 12)
3. Jonathan explains taking his model's skin tone into consideration by saying, "Pale understands pale." We wonder if Michael Kors understands Jack O' Lanterns. (Episode 8)
2. Tim says, You're designers, not plagiarists." Obviously this isn't the Forever 21 Challenge. (Episode 3)
1. Mila even color blocks her dog. Oh wait, it's a Dalmatian. (Episode 13)