In which we continue to draw Life Lessons from this season’s surprise source of integral wisdom (and ripping-good reality TV), “Project Runway.”

Lesson 10: There’s No Room for Drama on a Deadline

In Episode 4, the designers had to go from working solo to a cluster fuck collaborating in teams! Of three designers each. Mon dieu et zut alors!

Team Kevin fell victim to the drama doldrums when a critical pattern piece went missing. Instead of spending valuable time figuring out a solution, they wasted it (apparently—I’ve still got to catch up) with infighting and hysteria. As Tim so sagely put it, “It was not essential that the pattern piece be found or that retribution be sought for a speculative thief. What was essential is that the design be finished in time for the runway judging.”

What precious commodity—time, energy, effort—are you frittering away on some “missing pattern piece” of your life when you could be getting on with things? Have you not read He’s Just Not That Into You? Do you not get that this is not a dress (OMG!!! ROTFLMAO!!!) rehearsal? Lose the hair shirt! Drop the mantle, Drama Queen! Need I spell it out for you? Tick, tick, tick!!!

Lesson 11: Don’t Fall on Your Sword!

Poor Vanessa. She learned this lesson the hard way. When the judges asked which member of the team was the weak link, Vanessa brought up her own inferior cutting skills. WTF?!? Don’t aspiring couturiers watch “The Apprentice”? Tim knows the score: “Even when up against a wall and caught red-handed with the evidence, don’t volunteer to receive the death sentence; you can’t go backwards from there. I’m reminded of another Susan Hayward film (am I dating myself?) in which her character is accused of murder and imprisoned. It’s called, I Want to Live! That’s the spirit.”

Damn straight, it is! Be your own best friend and your bestest publicist! And if you’ve found yourself on P4 in the underground parking garage of self-esteem, well, then, fake it till you make it, baby! Do you think that if, say, the President of the United States made an egregious error of some sort or another that he’d throw up his hand and cry “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maximum culpa!”?! Do you think he’d even cry at all? ‘Nuff said.

***

We’re getting down to the wire. Only a few designers and a couple of episodes left. Tonight’s VERY SPECIAL PROJECT RUNWAY is a pastiche of interviews with current and former program contestants. But don’t call it padding; call it an opportunity to learn! Unless of course, you’ve got your whole life figured out and everything, Little Miss Buddha!

xxx
c

TOPICS: Bravo, illustration, Project Runway, reality TV, Television, TV.

This entry was posted by the communicatrix on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 at and is filed under The Silly Ones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.