SALON

Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012 4:45 PM UTC

Posen filling Kors’ ‘Project Runway’ hot seat

By

Topics: From the Wires,

NEW YORK (AP) — Zac Posen is in on “Project Runway” — he’ll be the new featured judge, filling the chair Michael Kors sat in for the show’s first 10 seasons.

“This was an amazing opportunity,” Posen said. “I hope I’m here to give a new perspective to the designers.”

Kors isn’t “out” — as host Heidi Klum likes to say to the fashion-design contestants who get the boot on the granddaddy of fashion reality TV shows. His schedule didn’t allow a commitment, but he will come back as a guest judge for the season finale, according to a statement for Lifetime TV.

Posen said he learned from Kors. “When I was a guest judge, I saw he was always a generous, warm mentor.”

Posen’s best skill to offer the contestants is his sharp eye, he said. Craft and construction are among his passions, he explained, so nothing gets past him there.

It’s Klum’s role in the new lineup to bring the voice of the woman who might be the eventual customer. Nina Garcia, the fashion director at Marie Claire, has her editorial eye, and Posen analyzes the specifics of the design, he said.

Posen, however, also sounded a little jealous of Tim Gunn, who has the part of trusted adviser. “I wanted to be behind the scenes with Tim. … I was seeing the clothes on the runway, but Tim had all the background interaction.”

The silver lining? Posen said he’ll appreciate a little more what the stylists, editors and retailers are looking for as they sit in the front row for his own catwalk shows, which last season drew much attention for a model lineup that included Naomi Campbell, Coco Rocha and Karolina Kurkova — a threesome getting their own TV reality show this winter called “The Face” on the Oxygen network.

Another twist to the revamped “Project Runway,” in which the winner gets $100,000 to start their own brand, is that the contestants compete as teams instead of individuals.

“You can imagine the designers’ reactions when we first told them,” Klum, an executive producer, said, “but it resulted in some really interesting conflicts and partnerships. And that is how designers work in the real world — they do have to work on teams and manage teams — you get to understand their personalities more.”

Posen said he aims to be a collaborative player and appreciates what everyone else at his company does, although he is the starting and stopping point of each look that bears his label.

He’ll be at the studio solo next week over the holidays, sketching and draping fabric with the music “thumping”: It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year, he said.

The “Project Runway” season starts Jan. 24.

___

Online:

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway

___

Samantha Critchell tweets fashion at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Fashion and can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/Sam_Critchell

More By Samantha Critchell.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations