A thief who's hip to the latest trends is terrorizing SoHo boutiques, including the Michael Kors store that's been struck three times. Forty-nine year old suspect Mark Perkins was identified Thursday through DNA evidence, though police believe he works with accomplices, reports the Times. At West Broadway's Jeans Shop one night the gang got in with a crowbar and grabbed 130 pairs of denim pants, each retailing at over $200; at Michael Kors they grabbed flashy gold leather satchel bags. Though sellers fear the crime wave will scare off their upscale clientele, an editor of RackedNY says the spree speaks to the fine tastes of the city. When told that a Marc Jacobs store had also been targeted, he observed that “Everyone wants to get in there, even the crime rings.” more ›

Yes, despite their move to the suburban mom haven of Lifetime, the cast of Project Runway is celebrating their return to New York with a street naming and their own holiday. NYC & Company presented a New York City Proclamation deeming Wednesday January 13th as Project Runway Day, and the stretch of 7th Ave named "Fashion Avenue" has been temporarily re-named "Project Runway Avenue." Tim Gunn, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia joined city officials this morning for the naming ceremony in front of the "Needle Threading a Button" sculpture. We're not entirely sure what the traditional celebrations are for Project Runway Day, but we know there is one thing missing: Heidi Klum! more ›

May the television gods hear our and others' pleas! Last month, the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan broke the news that Tim Gunn was not signed for a fourth season of Project Runway:

Will he be back? Ever the modest one, he would only say he "makes no assumptions," but he would come back "in a heartbeat" if asked. There's no official word, by the way, that there will be a fourth season, but it seems more likely than a supersize season finale of "Grey's." more ›

The last new Project Runway was practically two weeks ago, but thanks to Bravo rerunning it, we could relive it many times. It was full of twists: Two previously kicked-off winners got to reappear and fight for a place in the final four (well, besides Keith) and the outfit would have to be black-and-white and all the material had to be used - even scraps! It's debatable which spooked people more - Angela's "sad eyes," Vincent's "crazy eyes," or using all the fabric. Some of our thoughts: more ›

Interesting - the Post has a sorta followup to yesterday's Daily News story about Fashion Week being at Bryant Park next February. Though yesterday's Daily News article had Vogue editor Anna Wintour saying that Mayor Bloomberg would support fashion - and tents in Bryant Park - in spite of the park's desire to keep the ice rink up, the Post says Diane Von Furstenberg couldn't convince Bloomberg to keep the tents there. Von Furstenberg, designer and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, made a "personal appeal" to ask Mayor B to prevent the tents' eviction, but "instead he'll work toward finding another suitable location," according to a CFDA executive that told the Post. So, the locations that may see the Spring shows next February: Javits Center, Lincoln Center, and Chelsea Piers. more ›

Ahhhh! It's Olympus Fashion Week and today, the designers from Project Runway showed their collections! Now, as we all know, all four designers from the Final Four - Jeffrey, Laura, Michael and Uli - get to present at Fashion Week, but one of the shows is a decoy, in order for people not to know who the true Final Three are. (Last year, Kara Janx presented at Fashion Week, though Daniel V., Chloe and Santino were the only ones really competing.) more ›

The upside to a three day weekend is that waiting for the new Project Runway goes back so much more quickly. The downside? Not being able to write about it till the day of the new show. So to prepare you when you watch the rerun of last week's jetsetting episode: more ›

We've had almost a week to recover from last week's insane Project Runway episode where the designers had to design for non-models - as in, their own mothers and sisters, many of whom were far from being waify models. It was very sweet to see the designers, even the ones that make our blood boil, connect with their mothers or sister, but very painful to watch Jeffrey and his model, Angela's mother Darlene. Of course Jeffrey, who hates Angela with the passion of a thousand suns, would have to get her mother as his model, and of course Jeffrey acted like a royal ass and make Darlene cry, instead of showing that he could rise to the challenge. more ›

Just a few more hours until the Project Runway where Angela apparently cries as Jeffrey goes medieval on her ass. But we need to discuss what happened during last week's garbage challenge, or as we like to call it, "The BS episode." more ›

Okay, we didn't write about Episode 5 of Project Runway last week, and for that we apologize because that lack of discipline simply does not work. But that meant we've had time to watch the episode, oh, about 4 times all the way through, plus various snippets repeatedly whenever we turn on Bravo, we've had time to think: more ›

Our Wednesday nights have purpose again, as Project Runway starts its third season and pull us out of our rerun doldrums. The audition show was on last night and will repeat tonight at 9PM before the 10PM season three premiere. And have you read Tim Gunn's blog entry about the season three auditions? Here's Tim's transcript of what happened in LA:

Our next candidate enters holding a top with a hoodie shaped like a dragon head, complete with scales; a feathered ball gown with a 20-foot train (really); and a corset made out of condoms. more ›

Here are our initial ideas on a Project Runway Season 2 drinking game... if you have suggestions, put them below and we'll have a revised game for next week's second part of the finale! more ›

Last night's Project Runway Reunion special was so good: Montages, dirty looks, incomprehensible babbling, serious weight loss (thank you, John Wade - you look great!), and Tim Gunn! Some things we noticed, wondered about, and loved: more ›

Break out a bottle of Haterade, because it's Santino versus the world! Since Andrae, aka the glue that held everyone everyone, left two episodes ago and then Nick, aka Daniel's BFF, left last episode, it just meant that there were less people to deflect Santino's lovably hateful ego. The other three Project Runway designers, Daniel, Chloe and Kara, immediately put themselves in the "we're not Santino" camp. Their challenge: To design an evening gown...and not just any gown - a gown that will represent their vision for their runway show! Yes, say it with Gothamist: "Oh...My...GOD!" And then the designers got to meet with Fern Mallis, who heads 7th on 6th and basically chooses who gets to show during Fashion Week. Yes - OMG! After one designer asked if she had any advice and Fern answered that they should be nice, Daniel, with stage theatricality, craned his head back to look at Santino. And as if us viewers didn't get the idea, Daniel does a one-on-one to basically say he wanted Santino to know he had to be nice. Then there's a Santino one-on-one where he's all "I don't have to be nice." more ›

Have we mentioned that Project Runway might be the best show on Earth? Last night, all remaining eight designers to wear tacky skating outfits and to ice-skate. Even Tim Gunn skated awkwardly! And Emmett, who we call "The Barnacle," wore this crazy fuschia blouson! The challenge was to design a skating outfit for Sasha Cohen (who recently won the national championship, ensuring her a place on the Olympic team, but since Project Runway was taped earlier, they kept calling her a national "silver medalist"). This proved more difficult, as they had to deal with more Lycra-fabrics and with Andrae's hysteria over the overlocker sewing machines (they are the machines you'd want to sew Lycra with). But they did get to hoof it to NJ and ice-skate in a train - they all seemed to get along then. Here are a couple things we noticed/wondered with this episode: more ›

Project Runway has a couple of its season two dresses for sale on various auctions at the PR website. They are winning dresses from Santino and Chloe, plus that terribly-fitting Daniel Franco muslin dress and Diana's deconstructed prom dress. Naturally, Santino's and Chloe's dresses are in the $300+ range, while Daniel's and Diana's dresses are at about $55. Gothamist really loves Santino's dress (right), and maybe, if we removes some ribs and about a third of our body, we could wear it. Chloe's dress was also lovely, and we sort of loved Diane von Furstenberg as a judge during the second episode, with her slouchy appraisals of everyone, but Nina Garcia and Michael Kors are really making up for a Janice Dickinson-less America's Next Top Model. more ›

Wednesday is now most definitely the new Must See TV night. Not only is there Law & Order, Lost, and CSI: NY on the big networks, there's America's Next Top Model, Veronica Mars, and now Project Runway on Bravo. It is the only night of the week that requires a seriously souped up TiVo set-up, but luckily the UPN and Bravo replay their shows. Project Runway's new season starts with two hours of annoying new reality show contestants, bad ideas of what fashion should be, some bitchery from Nina Garcia and Michael Kors (we hope! we pray!) and waiting for an Auf Wiedersehen from Heidi Klum. Gothamist cannot wait - there is even another Kara in the mix. But most importantly, it brings us more Tim Gunn. And if you're at home now, you could be watching a Project Runway Season 1 marathon right now, up through a 6PM showing of the finale! more ›

Jay's runway collection was an explosion of color - a little overwhelming, but still, a lot of great, interesting pieces (the detailing on this sweater is sweet, and the final dress was great). Kara's collection was sexy and beautifully put together, but, as Michael Kors said, it was too Gucci (and if Gothamist can see that, then there are problems). Wendy's collection was all right - skillfully tailored, but pretty ugly. Gothamist does applaud Bravo's chutzpah for making sure Wendy's wispy-voiced daughter pulled our heartstrings, though. As for Kara's and Wendy's futures, we can only imagine they will have more success: Kara because she's skilled and Wendy because she's a character. more ›