We saw it coming, but now it's official: Michelle Lesniak Franklin of Garnish Apparel's team and her own Michelle Is Well line (which debuted at the 2011 Portland Fashion Week as part of the Emerging Designers Competition—I was a judge and she was one of the lead contenders to win), will be one of the Season 11 contestants on Project Runway, which debuts January 24 on Lifetime.

Yet again the show's producers have wound up with someone whose work I have seen but am not intimately familiar with, and a relatively unknown name among Portland's industry watchers. As bullshitty-at-best and destructive-at-worst as I think this show is, I have to admit I'm kind of looking forward to this. Maybe I'm getting soft, but it's a guilty pleasure that I and my one friend who still watches it have come to enjoy when we have the excuse of a local contestant, kinda like eating Cheetos—but only on road trips. In the meantime, you can brush up on her here, with Q&As and videos like this one:

I don't supposed they'll let her bring the jogging chihuahua, though. :(