At some moment during every episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, host James Lipton is going to ask the evening’s celeb to identify another occupation that they would have liked to have tried. What was the road not taken? I know in my own case I came very close to going to law school. You can probably tell that I’m the argumentative type. As it was, in my first job out of college I ended up helping to rewrite – and for the most part getting enacted into law – some 3,000 sections of the California Penal Code. The only problem with going to law school is that I would have ended up being a lawyer – that was the catch I could never get beyond in my own thinking about what to do next.

But that’s not really I might respond if, perchance, I ever found myself on that New School Stage being interviewed by Mr. Lipton. No, the alternative career that I probably really would have enjoyed pursuing is that of a fashion designer. When I was in high school art classes, I obsessed at questions of color & texture. The whole idea of using the human form as a canvas for such an obsession always has struck me as one of these tremendously, deeply satisfying arts.

There were, of course, a gazillion reasons why I didn’t pursue fashion. For one thing, you really need to understand how to make garments & how to sew. Even in high school I had the manual dexterity & fine motor skills of a pony – and a Clydesdale at that. Then there is the problem that fashion is the gewgaw of the super rich. The whole idea of designing fine clothing for the likes of the Hilton sisters really is disgusting. Finally, there was the problem that I think has always tended to keep hetero young men from pursuing that field – right at the age where they have to commit themselves to the process, women’s bodies seem radioactive with sexuality. How can you work when you can’t even think straight?

There are of course further issues that stand in the way, such as what will the family think. Pretty much what they think about the idea that you’re going to write poetry: you’re serious about this? I was fortunate perhaps that my dad was long gone & my grandfather was a study in non-presence. Some of my great uncles were bad enough. My approach was simply not to discuss poetry, and I don’t think anyone outside of the immediate family knew that I wrote until I started publishing books.

All of this feels like a million years ago to bring it up now. Except that I’ve discovered something that puts me very much back into the mindset I had in highschool all about fabric, texture & color & their infinite possibilities. This is the reality TV show, Project Runway, a Wednesday night staple on Bravo. I don’t watch much TV to begin with, and my general take on so-called reality shows is that as a category they’re beneath contempt, yet here is one with really talented people pursuing an art they’re all generally good at, doing really creative things. It’s also one of the most interesting shows on television for its presentation of a cross-section of humanity. The winner the first season, Jay McCarroll (whose final collection is pictured above), is that beyond-the-margins phenomenon, a gay man from rural America, in his case central Pennsylvania. While Jay is a wonderful designer, he himself is quite over-the-top. There is nothing even remotely chic about the overweight young man who is apt to be wearing a wool knit hat and cowboy hat simultaneously. You can only wonder what they think of him out there in Rick Santorum-world.

One of the contestants this season, Santino Rice, seems obsessed with proving that gay men can be every bit as much of a jerk as any straight person. If so-called reality shows seem to need their villains, it’s hard to imagine just how hard Santino has tried to fulfill that role. And, for him, it’s worked. He’s been kept on more than one occasion when his design – always too cluttered & over-the-top, badly sewn & ill fitting – should have gotten him eliminated in the weekly contests. He stays because he makes great TV.

The premise of the show is this – you start with 16 beginning designers, some just out of fashion school, others with some more experience (one fellow this season was already a successful men’s wear designer, one of the contestants last year was doing outfits for Queen Latifah even before she got picked for the show) and eliminate one or two each week until you get to a final three who have the chance to show a full collection at New York’s Fashion Week.¹ The winner is picked after the show, and receives a full spread in Elle magazine, a year’s mentorship at Banana Republic, a car & cash with which to launch one’s own line of design wear.

If the show fudges on who gets eliminated, it does so modestly. The three finalists this year have each won multiple challenges – indeed, they represent eight of the eleven winning designs. Two, Daniel Vosovic and Chloe Dao, are graduates of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, while the third, Santino Rice, went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing in California. Vosovic is young and relatively new to the industry – he’s also won four of the challenges & is easily the most talented designer. Dao had some high powered positions in New York fashion houses before returning to her hometown of Houston to open up her Lot8 boutique. Rice has had similar kinds of positions on the west coast.

I’ve already decided – weeks ago in fact – that Vosovic, who until recently was a competitive gymnast on the national level, is the one who should win. If he doesn’t, it will be because Dao – who was born to Vietnamese parents in Laos as they made their way to the U.S. – has more experience. In some ways, she already is what he’s trying to become (check out her fall 2004 line), a successful designer. And should Santino win? That would just be evil.

 

¹ There is a trick in this. Since Project Runway has not yet aired the show that arrives at the final three when Fashion Week itself is held, the fourth-place contestant also gets to do a show, but is not included in the final judging. Narratively, the show acts as tho the fourth person doesn’t get the opportunity to show – an opportunity that is limited to just 70 designers in the world.