Project Runway 2

I don’t care…even a little bit…about “high” fashion (not the high-strung designers nor the imperious fashion editors and writers, not the haughty waif-like models nor the self-styled “trendsetters” who dwell in and about the whole fashion industry…none of it means anything serious to me) but, that said, I really like Project Runway.

The first season of the Bravo “reality” show was hoot filled with campy vamping, rampaging egos, pretentious babble from contestants and judges alike, sometimes hilarious and sometimes downright hideous (and, to be fair, occasionally kind of interesting) designs, catty backbiting, and, at the center of it all, “supermodel” Heidi Klum as the frosty mistress of ceremonies dismissing losing contestants with a sharp, clipped “You’re out.”

What’s not to like? :-) (Okay, probably a lot for most of you reading this...but me, I don't mind wasting an hour a week to watch it unfold in all of its tacky "glory".)

The second season (the cast…Ms. Klum, the designer contestants, and the models who have to wear the garments these folks create…are pictured above) has gotten off to even more delightful start with the egos being larger (one guy, who has a VERY high opinion of himself and his talents, pouts outwardly and goes off to sulk if he doesn't come in first with every challenge), the cattiness (including and especially among the male contestants) being sharper and more unabashed, and the outfits being enough to make a fashion-challenged, jeans-and-tee-shirts guy like me just shake his head in amused wonder.

Throw in the fact that Heidi seems to have dozens of stylish maternity outfits (she was pregnant with baby Seal…or, if you'd rather, with her husband Seal’s baby… when taping the show) to share with us all and you’ve got “reality” TV gold, baby! :-)

After the disappointments of this season’s relatively-tepid editions of Survivor and The Amazing Race (not to mention cringe-inducing, “I-can’t-believe-they-really-need-to-be-on-television-THIS-badly” train wrecks like Being Bobby Brown and Breaking Bonaduce), Project Runway 2 has shown up just in time to give hope to those of us who include “reality” TV shows amongst our guilty pleasures .