The Reality of Project Runway??

by Kevin Lee

For the fashion-conscious or those who are simply fans of reality TV, the phrase “auf Wiedersehen” brings to mind German hostess Heidi Klum's way of sending away contestants who have lost on her show, Project Runway. Project Runway, simply put, is a reality show where some fifteen out of thousands of auditioning fashion designers are chosen to vie for fame that is all but impossible to obtain, and for prizes that are too good to be true. Ever since its premier in 2004, the show has boasted millions of loyal viewers around the globe. Six other local versions have also been made in places such as Australia, Canada, and the Philippines.

What the show has always been striving for is, in my view, variety. Season after season, the themes have been anything but predictable. Once, they were designing for high-schoolers going to prom, with the help and “supervision” of the girls' moms. Another time they were asked to work for the Miss USA pageant. The different backgrounds of the contestants is another aspect of the show's variety.

Apart from this, the prizes are also appealing features of any reality show. In Project Runway the winners might get an internship with a famous designer and the chance to market their own lines of clothes. This certainly inspires creativity and entrepreneurship, not just a random quest for styles that are “in.”

All things said, however, the show has also inspired its share of negative opinions. We are all familiar with the criticism that reality shows are the farthest thing from being real. Everyone behaves just as they are instructed to, not to mention various kinds of manipulation by the post-production team. However, reality shows, by themselves, are meant to be dramatic. Contestants without a doubt are portrayed in a certain way in order that viewers can relate to them. With all sorts of stress and unrelenting deadlines as part of our daily routine, reality shows offer an escape. We can imagine a lifestyle far from us and people whom we might never be. We ourselves might be afraid to be the object of such cruel comments in public, from the judges or the other contestants. The shows offer us relief as well as enjoyment. Though some of the restrictions may seem a bit absurd, like the extreme time constraints which the designers have to struggle with, these elements only increase the entertainment value of the show.

In the case of Project Runway, it’s more than amazing to see a few yards of raw material end up as an awesome piece of clothing going down the runway, whether it be an evening gown or casual sportswear. Seeing how creatively people can work under all sorts of limitations inspires us to apply our ingenuity to tasks and projects of our own. Also, one of the great highlights of the show is to see winners walk away with all their prizes. We can read follow-up stories about how the winners now run their businesses, real-life accounts of inspiring entrepreneurship. Project Runway might not be "realistic," but it is also a show that presents us with more than meets the eye.