A couple weeks ago I attended a press screening of the upcoming doc The September Issue, which goes behind the scenes at Vogue during the process of putting together its biggest issue of the calendar year. It's currently schedule to release in Portland on the 11th of September, so I'll reserve the bulk of my thoughts on it until then, outside of admitting that at one point—and I did not remotely see this coming—I actually misted a bit. Anna Wintour, who seems to be making an effort to downplay her bitchy reputation, made an appearance on David Letterman's show the other day in support of the film, which I would agree puts her in a relate-able, if not exactly approachable light:

I'm not sure what to say about this other than, "Oh." Apparently it's part of a national ad campaign, not just regional. You may have seen it on The Twenty before a movie. I'd heard about it, but it's darker than I expected it to be. Anyhow, I thought PDX should see it and know that the advertising world is linking Portland to an "urban savage" motif. You know, just FYI. It's good to know what people's motifs are.

I've just seen this German video on the outfits of Lady GaGa, whose music I'm only barely familiar with and thoroughly unimpressed with. Also the bits of her speaking that you can hear under the German translation ("We believe in vanity," "I dress like this all the time") don't make me want to know her. But I am super happy that she wears the craziest stuff from the runways. I think it's her duty. Like when Beyonce wore the Balenciaga robot gear. Someone had to do it. For this reason I hope her career is long and resistant to de-glam-ination. The video gives a nice little montage. I hope she dresses like this to go to the grocery store, but I rather doubt she ever goes to the grocery store.

…YES, the band. (Okay, that was an End Hits joke. Sorry.)

While you rarely hear of the Gossip doing much (besides resting, and shopping at New Seasons, presumably) in PDX compared to their widely documented shenanigans around the world—in the UK and LA particularly—Beth Ditto still counts as a Portlander. It follows that her new line for the plus-size UK retailer Evans (owned by the Top Shop suits) is of local interest, even if you can only buy it from a computer in Portland. Perhaps you saw the article in yesterday's NYT Thursday Styles about plus-size fashion, featuring Ms. Ditto and Fat Fancy (who we once collaborated with on a makeover giveaway, you'll recall)? If not it's worth checking out. And while the Evans line isn't set to make its debut until early next month, Jezebel has a slide show up.

If you watched Project Runway last season to see Portland designer Leanne Marshall win it, then you will no doubt recall Kenley Collins as the reality show's de facto villain. Wonder what she's up to now? Oh, not much. Just braining people in the head with laptops.

The reality star allegedly attacked her sleeping ex-fiancé with her pet cat, water, several apples and the laptop. The Web site also reports that Collins is currently being held in jail.

She used the cat??!! That is seriously messed up. Read it here.

Hmm, sort of weird, but okay. The Huffington Post made a list of women's clothing items that are both sustainable and worthy of a V.P. candidate, and guess who made the short list? Portland's own Emily Katz had her cotton fleece swing coat in the mix!

Yesterday, Mr. Blackwell, the famous creator of worst-dressed lists (you might remember when he zingingly called Madonna the "Bare Bottomed Bore of Babylon"), died at the age of 86. While it's true that in recent years the relevance and sharpness of his lists waned, the guy had an impressive career: Born into poverty and abuse in Brooklyn, he was a teen prostitute, acted alongside Mae West, was a successful fashion designer during the '60s (and notably, was the first to make his dresses in plus sizes), and aside from his list-making was a successful fashion journalist for The Globe, among others. R.I.P., Mr. Blackwell.

Hey, don't take my word for it--after all, as a local who writes about local fashion design, I'm kind of biased. But as we prepare for the finale of Project Runway, airing tonight (I am so glad it is not in conflict with the presidential debate, because I hate to say it but...), it seems just about everyone who's weighed in is on Leanne's side. NPR's Linda Holmes sums it up nicely:

Sometimes, you don't even know that a show has any legitimacy until you realize that a particular outcome would really hurt its legitimacy, and a win for Kenley would demolish Project Runway's legitimacy. People like this show partly because it was one of the first reality shows to showcase actual skill -- not always, but sometimes. Not reliably, but at least sporadically.

It's true. And given the response Leanne has already received at New York Fashion Week, it seems all too clear... Come celebrate tonight at the Tanker with us--it all goes down starting at 8 pm.

On last night's episode (part one of the finale), Tim Gunn went to each of the final four's hometowns to check on their collections being prepped for New York Fashion Week, confirming rumors of Gunn sightings in PDX. The end of the first clip and start of the second contain the local footage, but you can't see much: the obligatory shot across the Burnside Bridge at the Made in Oregon sign, some footage inside Leanne Marshall's SE studio apartment, and Marshall and Gunn hanging out and riding a tandem bike in Laurelhurst Park.

Find out which of the four finalists got auf'd after the break...

Does anyone here watch Live with Regis and Kelly? I so do not, but I will tomorrow, when they (presumably) post today's episode, which features the finalists of Project Runway, including our own design star (who if she didn't win the whole shebang after killing it in New York doesn't need that no-account Heidi Klum anyway) Leanne Marshall.

Did anyone catch the show? How did it go? (I'll post it tomorrow for all to see for themselves as soon as it pops up on the internets.) In the meantime, don't miss tonight's part one of the finale (ie part one of said killing)--join the crowd at the Tanker at 8 pm for some DIRECTV action and drink specials.

Also, tonight is the kickoff of Portland Fashion Week, which ironically, in direct conflict with the actual Project Runway airing, will feature a PR-style competition as part of the presentation of work by the design students of the Art Institute of Portland, to be judged by Adam Arnold doing his best Michael Kors impersonation and yours truly doing my best Nina Garcia. Show starts at 8 pm at the new, green, and exciting 14 Square (1330 NW 14th), and look for the Mercury's Fall Fashion Issue, which will start dropping around town later today!

designs by Leanne Marshall

I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

Find out what I'm griping about after the jump, and enjoy the view of Leanne's latest challenge:

Uh-oh. Looks like the transition from Bravo to Lifetime is not going smoothly for Project Runway, according to IMDB:

Supermodel Heidi Klum's hit reality TV fashion design contest Project Runway has been dealt a severe blow as it plans for a new season - a New York judge has blocked the show's move to America's Lifetime network.

The judge has issued a preliminary ruling against the Weinstein Company, which owns Lifetime, to prevent network bosses airing the sixth season of the programme.

Make it work, Tim. Goddamn it, make it work!

AGHHH! I'm still recovering from the headache induced by trying to wrap my head around last night's designer challenge: The five remaining designers all had to design getups for each other, so everyone was both designing and modeling, and the outfits had to align with a musical-genre theme, like "country" or "hiphop," making it near-impossible to keep track of who was designing what for who without the aid of a spreadsheet. And the worst part is that one of these three people had to be sent home dressed like this:

Find out who after the break!

I must say, I am especially looking forward to tonight's installment of Project Runway, because it is guest-judged by LL COOL J! Ah, the hiphop challenge. Now I really think this could go either way for our girl Leanne Marshall--but I'm going to assume she does okay. On the other hand, things don't look so good for Kenley (and her big attitude!):

Join us tonight at the Tanker at 8 pm for Leanne, LL, and LL's pythons:

Okay, guess which one of these awkward outfits was designed by Leanne Marshall on last night's episode of Project Runway:

The answer plus spoilers after the break!

Alright, confusion settled. Kind of. This morning, all six remaining contestants on the show showed 10-piece collections at NY Fashion Week. And read this!!! Did our girl win?! It's impossible to say for sure--the finale is being filmed today--but things are looking very, very good.

Fern Mallis, who oversees New York Fashion Week, saw a more clear winner: Marshall. "It worked from the beginning to the end. There was a concept, she made it work beautifully, and executed it."
Last year's winner, Christian Siriano, agreed.
"I thought Leanne's was fabulous," he said. "She has to be winner, because everything else was not cute."

Watch the video here!

Still looking for a decent still photo... Style.com doesn't have the show up yet, and New York Magazine inexplicably has a slideshow of every contestant except hers. Grrr.

UPDATE!! The photos are up!

Guess which one of the following designs was created by homegirl Leanne Marshall on last night's bloodbath episode of Project Runway:

The answer and spoilers are after the jump for all of you late-to-the-party people. If you haven't yet seen the episode, get ready for the claws to come out. In the spirit of the judges' removal of gloves and coming-out of claws, I will also cease to hold my tongue and say this: Who gives a GODDAMN what Heidi Klum thinks about fashion? SHE IS A FRIGGING UNDERWEAR AND SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT MODEL. (AND NOT EVEN GOOD UNDERWEAR!) Just keep that in mind when you notice how the only comments she can muster in this episode ARE ABOUT BOOBS. Okay. Better.

Tonight's episode of Project Runway comes just three days before Friday morning's Project Runway showcase at Bryant Park during NY Fashion Week, and there are way too many designers left on the show. It's bewildering, but Gratz Industries has an intensely thorough analysis to help you grope through the darkness.

This episode might well be called "The Reunion Show," as all of this season's eight aufed contestants will be called back to partner with the eight remaining contestants. The challenge: create a dress that reflects the zodiac sign of the aufed designer in the pair. There was some discussion over at Blogging Project Runway about what role the aufed designers will really play--are they merely clients? clients and models? collaborators?--but after viewing the previews about a thousand times we're ready to say they are collaborators only, not clients or models or any combination thereof.

All of this is precipitated by an episode of Project Runway Australia, in which the aufed designers were also brought back and paired with the remaining designers. In that episode, the aufed designers were both collaborators and models, but the real trick of the episode--and one that played smashingly well, we thought--was that the previously aufed designer on the winning team won a place back on the show. So important was this in PR Oz that the previously aufed designer who won her way back on is now in the final three.

Will our Project Runway follow suit? It would certainly up the ante for the aufed designers, and reinvigorate the show mid-season. It all sounds great, until you realize that even just aufing two designers--which has been confirmed by the Powers That Be at Bravo--we're still left with six designers on the show just three days away from the filming of the finale at Bryant Park Fashion Week. (The finalists show their collection at Bryant Park while the regular season episodes are still airing, and the finale episodes are edited together in-season, to be ready in time for their debut.)

But the way this has worked in the past is that four or five designers show lines, with one or two of them acting as red herrings for the viewing public. That way, we don't know which of the last four or five designers the judges are actually scoring. But six runway shows? That's a lot. And now, if one of the aufed designers is added back in, that could mean seven runway shows. At some point, this becomes like the hockey playoffs--everybody makes it, and nobody cares.

Here's a preview video of tonight's episode to tide you over--we'll be watching tonight at The Tanker, where the whimsical DirecTV oracle contends that it will begin at the regularly scheduled hour of 8 pm.

H-O-L-Y crap, last night's installment of Project Runway was all about Portland contestant Leanne Marshall wiping the goddamn floor with her competitors. As we all remember, she won last week's challenge (in which the designers had to create their looks using car parts), and as a result was granted immunity from being eliminated during last night's round. Nevertheless, the challenge--which was guest-judged by fashion titan Diane Von Furstenberg--was mostly fumbled by the other designers, who couldn't control their foaming at the mouth over Furstenberg long enough to make something for the cosmopolitan glamour girl (and possible spy) that DVF conjured.

This week's most spectacular failures were bottom-two denizens Joe and Stella.

Here's Joe's sartorial WTF

Stella's, which DVF compared to "Dracula"

I think Joe's was much worse than Stella's, and although he's been kind of a dud personality-wise, some of his things have been okay. Actually the only one I can recall was the Olympic team outfit challenge, and I liked what he did there. Stella, on the other hand, I was just starting to really warm up to when YOINK--she's eliminated. You know what that means: no more stories about her boyfriend Ratbones. Dang. That sucks.

Meanwhile, here's Leanne's slam-effing-dunk, which DVF loved, and which won her the challenge AGAIN, even though she could have just skated by on her immunity.

No immunity this time, but who cares: Leanne's design will go into production and be sold to American Express customers to benefit the Council of Fashion Designers of America (DVF is prez). She is the first contestant on this season to win while already having immunity--she's on fire! Stay tuned for next week--I watch it on the big screens at The Tanker whilst downing Stolichnaya presses (they also have a Project Runway mojito special). DirecTV has been squiffy with the air time--it's usually at 8 pm, but occasionally it's at 9 pm or 8:30--check back here on Wednesday for the correct hour.

Yes! On last night's episode of Project Runway, hometown gal Leanne Marshall won the challenge!! And, it was a decent challenge to boot: The contestants had to create their ensembles using the materials involved in building hybrid cars, meaning they had to contend with fussy materials that got stuck in their sewing machines, and banged a bunch of parts onto the floor to get at any usable guts. The results overall, considering, were pretty impressive given what they started with, but Leanne's was a shoo in--not only did she score on making something wearable, but her design idea was risky and hot:

Disregard the annoying over-modeling pose

I have to say I was getting worried about this season, given that the last couple of episodes have been rather snoozy turds, and I think it is a great sign that they are using footage of Leanne sparingly--the fact that they're stretching out her exposure means she'll be around for a while. And, she has immunity for the next challenge after last night's win, so we're guaranteed to hold on to her for at least the next two episodes. You know it's bad when they start talking about the personal lives of the designers--it's those guys who end up in the bottom two. However, I'm glad that Stella managed to avoid being auf'd, if only because I'd really like to learn more about her boyfriend "Ratbones"--you can't just drop a bomb like that and walk away.

Proof that this was the most compelling episode of the season thus far is that although he totally had it coming, I was super sad for Keith getting the axe. A reality show that induces me to eke out an actual emotional response? That's a rare gem, right there.

Last night's installment of Project Runway not only featured an impressive lineup of drag queens serving as models/clients to the contestants, who were tasked with creating fabulous stage outfits for them--not to mention guest judge Ru "who else?" Paul--it also featured the long overdue ousting of the chronically stumbling but cute Daniel, who tested judges and audience alike for the last time with his stubborn unwillingness to follow directions and unfortunate habit of responding to criticism with a defensive (but so pouty) lip. Buh-bye, Daniel.

Portland representative Leanne Marshall, meanwhile, did a fully competent job of dressing Sharon Needles in a spiky cyberpunk mini:

(By the way, this video is an excellent Sharon Needles primer:)

The winning outfit, however, went to the show's resident grumpy old man, Joe:

Stay tuned 'til next week, when the designers are judged by none other than notorious celeb stylist Rachel Zoe!