Project Runway Finale Ends First Season of Christian Siriano: NPR

The 17th season of Project track concluded Thursday evening, putting the victory to Sebastian Gray. It was the first series of the show without Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, who reigned then Track ran on Bravo then on Lifetime. Back on Bravo now, it features the model Karlie Kloss in the role of host and designer (and former Project track winner) Christian Siriano in the role of mentor. Not only has the season ended up being a strong argument in that a show like this can continue with a new animator, but it has almost become an argument for a change as the first, and not the last, option for emissions become obsolete. I was surprised with my affection for that, and certainly with my affection for Siriano, not what I preferred when he was a candidate.

Kloss is still getting under her feet, but she worked very well – at least as good as Klum when she was new. She has a warm, friendly and supportive presence and seems very happy to be there. But the big surprise, at least for me, was Christian Siriano. Although he is totally different from Tim Gunn, his beloved beloved liar, he is a funny, intelligent and honest mentor, who brings the right amount of reality TV zazz while bringing all kinds of senses. Success does not flatter everyone, but it flatters him.

When Siriano won the fourth season of the show in 2008, he was the youngest winner of the show at just 22 – and it showed. He could be impatient, self-conscious and negative about a job that he did not want to do for clients that he did not want to serve. He was criticized for his careless comments on drag queens and transgender people when he became famous. After his victory, however, he promised to improve, then he worked and worked and worked. He went on to do high-end fashion, but he also made shoes with Payless and a line for Lane Bryant, who kept his name in front of a large audience, much like the one he had at the television. His clothes appeared more and more on red carpets, and he drew a new wave of attention in 2016 when he made a dress for ghost hunters Star Leslie Jones, who complained that the creators did not want to dress her up. He then dressed eight women for the fall Emmys, across a variety of ages, races, body types, and styles.

After that, it seemed like he was a must-see at any high-end celebrity event and he brought out some of the most admired looks in the world, including Billy Porter's gorgeous velvet tuxedo dress for men. Oscars, which may well be the red carpet look of the year. Even though it was not a Track Aliano, Siriano would have been an excellent candidate for this post, based simply on the position he currently holds in fashion. They would have been lucky to have it.

At the same time that they recruited this very strong and current fashion Mentor, the producers have launched candidates that have been mostly enjoyable. There was very little interpersonal drama and a lot of attention to clothing development (fashion writers Tom and Lorenzo wrote well throughout the season), and in the end, the finalists – Sebastian Gray, Garo Sparo and Hester Sunshine – everything seemed perfectly qualified and in friendly conditions. It really is to whom the collection worked best. It could have been any of them.

In the final, Garo had a little too much trouble with the run, so he was put aside and he fell between Sebastian and Hester, who both made very good final collections in their own styles. Sebastian makes more classic and elegant clothes, always impeccably made but not dull. The leather work in his final collection was distinctive and grand. Hester, meanwhile, seemed finally mastering her aesthetic of "picnic clowns", very playful and colorful, and constitute a collection that did not seem as clever as some of his work of the season. She is also a brilliant stylist, perhaps using accessories as well as anyone in the series. She reached her peak at the right time, and she managed to not include some of the things that she did not work that attracted her (she especially overcame her love of fine dresses with pies / ugly bonnets, for example).

When Kloss and Judges Nina Garcia and Brandon Maxwell spoke of Sebastian and Hester, joined by guest judge Diane von Furstenberg, their debate made a lot of sense. Sebastian's line was more sophisticated. It was more consistent. It was no longer a complete idea. But Hester, they recognized, is very talented for another element of the sale of clothing: to be a personality that represents the brand well. That did not happen for nothing, as if she was only going to win because she's more user-friendly for the cameras. It was realistic, as far as she could win because she made a fantastic collection and that her character and her clothes are united, which helps to make the designer a star. Marketing is real; to be good, it is real. They chose Sebastian as the winner, but the series did not place an option "I will fight if this person wins", as was sometimes the case in the past.

All this – all that – was part of the season feeling that Project track both had become a better show than in recent years, a much more relevant to current fashion. Siriano, the main actor, was created by Judge Brandon Maxwell, who designed Lady Gaga's multi-phase Met Gala outfit, probably the most talked about look of the year by the fashion show the more controversial fashion. In a way, 16 seasons, Project track leveled.

Do not get me wrong: Tim Gunn was a very good mentor. He was gentle, wise, encouraging. He approached mentoring as a teacher, what he was. But if anything can reinvigorate such a series after 16 seasons, it's someone who does the job very differently, but also does it well. Siriano has a different vibe in the workroom, perhaps a bit more like a boss supervising apprentices. He is resolutely honest and able to break into notions better in theory than in practice. I laughed when a designer explained his plan to work around an outfit with zippers and Siriano said, "Are you going to put a zipper directly on the breast?" And the ego of his young being has become, perhaps thanks to his success, less defensive and more confident, so that he likes to joke the designers in situations where he tells them what to do. they have to do it and it turns out to be right – but it never seems naughty about it, ever. He warns them of their bad ideas with a despair of good humor, often falling back on something like "you are murder me "when he worries about their choices.

It was such a great surprise to discover that the changes that initially worried me might be what I needed to start loving the show again. That's enough when a successful host change allows you to continue enjoying a show (as it happened to me with The great British pastry show), but when it invigorates a show in which you have lost interest, it is something special.

Tim and Heidi are working on a new project for Amazon – and I will be watching it too. Always love them both! Always in their corner! But what a pleasure to find an old favorite who gave himself the lift.