Posts Tagged ‘Bravo’

This week, Bravo’s most recent fashion competition, “Launch My Line,” came to a finale, with jewelry designer Kathy Rose and her expert Emil Gampe winning the prize of launching four pieces on the website RueLaLa.com. But this reporter, as you might already know, was also a competitor on the show, building – with expert designer Thai Nguyen (pronounced TIE WHEN) (ThaiNguyencouture.com) – a convertible line of clothing we called “Inside Out.” We finished at first runners up and are incredibly proud of our ten piece collection – and you can see all of it on Bravotv.com. In the meantime, as we attempt to get financing for this line, Thai is launching two lines of his own: a fall 2010 collection of dresses that he will show in Los Angeles in late March, and a line of bridalwear.
Since Thai’s looks on “Launch My Line” were so striking – so beautifully built, tailored, constructed – we decided to do a profile of the budding young designer who makes his home – and eponymous store – in Orange County. He’s definitely a local SoCal talent to watch. He even designed all of my looks for this current and second season of “Rupaul’s Drag Race,” on Logo and VH1 – and they are amazing to see! So for all of those Thai fans out there, who wanted to see so much more of him on “Launch My Line” (he was too shy and modest to push his face in front of the camera, unlike others) – here he is!!! And these looks here are previews of his stunning new fall 2010 collection. Be prepared to swoon. Merle Ginsberg

FASHIONRULES: Thai, tell us about your background, breaking into the fashion business.

THAI NGUYEN: I graduated from FIDM in 2003. Then I got a job designing in the denim division of BCBG in Los Angeles. But I wanted to come back to the Vietnamese community and I did that, and became on of the top wardrobe stylists and designers for the Southern California Vietnamese community and Vietnamese singers and performers. In 2007, I opened my store, Thai Nguyen, where I create one of a kind evening gowns, dresses and bridal couture for customers. I also make one of a kind creations for singers and performers.

FASHIONRULES: Did you have any expectations of shooting Bravo’s “Launch My Line”? Apparently, you were the expert who finished the casting sewing contest first – and best!

THAI NGUYEN: Not really. It was a great opportunity as a Vietnamese person, it’s a big deal. I wanted America to see more of me – and my clothes! All they saw of me on Bravo was a story I told about my track team! I expected to be a lot funnier than I was on the show. I’m a very happy person, and you don’t see a lot of that on the show – just me looking very serious and at the sewing machine! But I’m very happy they didn’t turn me into an evil person – they made me ME and that was a good thing. No expectations. When you expect too much you just get hurt. I am glad that you and I got to show an entire ten piece collection in the finale, and we are getting great feedback from our collaboration – which was really great. I’m so lucky you and I clicked from the start! We had very complementary ideas and communicated very easily. It wasn’t like that for everybody!

FASHIONRULES: People are facebooking and emailing me a lot about our two amazing convertible evening gowns – the nude and peach organza that converts to a cocktail dress, and the last sequin gown in gold and black. People even want to order them!

THAI NGUYEN: Yes, definitely. We can make the gowns in terms of the style, we can replicate them – in terms of fabric, we can get it 90 percent right – it might not be exactly the same. It would made to order. Those fabrics came from Michael Levine in downtown LA, and I shop there all the time.

FASHIONRULES: What is your brand new fall collection like, that you will show in LA in late March?

THAI NGUYEN: The fall collection is all silk and flowy, very romantic, not so body conscious. It’s very chic elegant, the way I want to see women dressed. I suppose it has influences from New York and Europe, as well as Asia a bit. Sophisticated, but young and innocent at the same time. I could see Anne Hathaway or Carey Mulligan wearing these clothes. The color palette is black, navy, nude, grey, lavender and orchid – that Sandra bullock at the Golden Globes orchid. The fabrics are a mixture of silks from chiffon to organza – very romantic. The shape is straight down, not body-hugging like Dolce & Gabbana. It’s not a super sexy look – it’s more chic and lovely. And it’s drapey, with an unconverntional drape.
There is a lot of assymetry. And every look goes with the belt that I created. It’s all very wearable, I think, and great eveningwear for real life. It will definitely give women a moment of looks when they walk in a door – but never make them want to leave because they’re uncomfortable!

FASHIONRULES: Did you enjoy making my wardrobe for “Rupaul’s Drag Race” season two?

THAI NGUYEN: It was a great way to follow up shooting “Launch My Line.” There were 12 shows for Rupaul, and each one had a theme – like country, bridal, rock n’ roll – so I made the looks to go with the themes of the show. I also got to work in a lot of color, because color is better on television than black. I wanted you to look sexy sometimes; brainy other times; very judge-like – but chic! I can’t wait to see all the shows to see how the hair and makeup played with the outfits. And Merle, we have a lot of fun working together! I think you’re the perfect woman to be seen around town in my designs!

FASHIONRULES/MERLE GINSBERG: I think you’re going to be very pleased!! – MG

If you’re a fan of reality fashion competition shows, a new one comes on tonight at 11pm. Bravo will debut “Launch My Line,” a fairly new concept: they paired ten media personalities: an event planner (Vanessa Gonzalez), jewelry designer (Kathy Rose of Roseark), music biz exec (Kevin Black), choreographer (Dan Karaty), architect (David Applebaum), stylist (Louanna Rawls),marketer (Marilyn Crawford), deejay (Eric Cubeechee), NY fashion writer (Patrick McDonald) and L.A. fashion writer – me!!! Yes, I put my money where my mouth is, and competed as a budding fashion designer on “Launch My Line” – and it was a wild ride, exhausting, amazing, educational, and very stressful! When you see me writing on the show or at my computer, I’m writing Fashionrules! We hope you’ll tune in because the hosts are world famous Milanese fashion designers Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared2 are the esteemed hosts, and the judges are New York’s Stefani Greenfield, and L.A.’s Lisa Kline – and some of the biggest pop stars in the world make guest appearances, as does Frederic Fekkai. There will be three episodes in December airing, and the other six will air after the New Year. Watch what happens! – Merle Ginsberg

We hear a lot of gossip in the Bryant Park tents, as you can imagine. Today, we hear that Bravo is about to pick up the Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland fashion competition show, “The Fashion Show” for a second season – and no one is more surprised than the show’s producers. It was one of Bravo’s lowest rated shows – but obviously, they think they’re some potential in there to turn their measly million viewers into something closer to “Project Runway’s” nearly four million viewers. A little birdy told us that they wish they could replace co-host Kelly Rowland – who was a last minute substitute for Molly Simms – but she has a contractual agreement to do another season, if there is one. And apparently, even Isaac knew that Isaac Mizrahi was too mean on this show, and plans a bit of an image change. And that last line to losers, ‘”It’s just not cutting it – bye, bye!” is also about to get the snip. No word as to when the new season will begin.

WWD reported yesterday that Bravo Network is developing 3 new fashion-oriented tv shows – we knew one was about a photographer couple, one is on fashion pr Kelly Cutrone – but the third is said to be about L.A. fashion boutique Fred Segal. We assume this has to be about Fred Segal Santa Monica, since the real owners of Fred Segal Melrose are Ron Herman and Ron Robinson. In any case, it’s nice to see some fashion tv centered in L.A. – and it helps the city that the sixth season of “Project Runway” on Lifetime is centered here. – Merle Ginsberg

We hope you have your VCR’s set. At 8pm tonight, Thursday August 20th, “Project Runway” returns – but debuts on its new network, Lifetime. From 8pm to 10pm there will be an all-star show (with guest judge Nicole Kidman), and at 10pm, Season Six debuts, to 11pm – and it was all shot in Los Angeles! This means the challenges will be much more red-carpet oriented. Heidi and Tim will be on board, as will judges Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, and the New York Times wrote today that Lifetime is really the wrong milieu for the show – and that it looks like “PR” was toned down a bit to reach the much more mass audience of the Lifetime network – older, and a lot less urban than Bravo’s audience. However, Bravo’s efforts to compete by creating new fashion reality shows have so far not been particularly successful. “Project Runway” gets an audience of between 3 and 4 million people – and even in its first season, got 2 million. Bravo’s “The Fashion Show,” with Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland, got only 1 million viewers in its first season – and didn’t seem to create any excitement over any of its cast or designs. Well, let the games begin! Between “Project Runway” returning and “Mad Men” being back, we’re in fashion tv heaven.

Before she was the most controversial of “The Real Housewives of New York,” Bravo’s Kelly Killoren Bensimon was a New York model, an editor at Elle Magazine, and the author of several photo books on style. Her ex-husband, Gilles Bensimon, was the head photographer and creative director of Elle for many years. But it was “Real Housewives” that launched her to national television fame, notoriety – or whatever you want to call it. Now Kelly is turning designer and business woman. She’s launched a jewerly line called “Kelly” at Intermix stores across the country. Produced by famed jewelry manufacturer Mouawad, based here in Los Angeles, the affordable pieces are perfect summer accessories. Intermix will be carrying the s Navaho & Snake inspired rings and necklaces, and you can head to Intermix on Robertson in LA, or go to www.intermixonline.com. Will Kelly be fighting with Bethany again next season? Will Kelly be wearing the jewelry on the new season? Do girls like jewelry? Do people buy stuff from people they see on tv? You know what the answers are.

 

I might as well be the first to tell you, since it’s now hitting the blogs – I’ve taken the plunge. No, not marriage.

 

 It was announced this week that I am one of the contestants on the new Bravo reality fashion competition, “Launch My Line,” which debuts on Bravo on September 16th (hosted by the very fabulous DSquared!).

 

Yes, I’m going for it, trying to make a line of clothes, and I was paired with a designer that was chosen for me by the network and producers. Why did I do it – when I’m already a judge on a hit show (“Rupaul’s Drag Race,” on Logo and VH1)? And I have an established writing career?

A lot of people are asking me that. It was definitely a risky move. Well – I made all my clothes when I was a teenager, all the way through college. My grandmother was a seamstress, and I grew up loving clothes, buying patterns and fabric, and pedaling away on an old Singer sewing machine. I found it an amazing creative outlet, and it’s always been my favorite form of visual expression. I’ve always wanted to go to design school, but lucky for me, my career as a journalist has been full and rich, and busy enough that I never felt I had the real time to do it. When Bravo approached me about the show, I thought, “Why not go on there and really learn what I don’t know about making clothes?” I also knew it would inform my writing.

 

So now it’s time for me to put my money where my mouth, pen and computer have been all these years. On September 16th and on, you’ll be able to see whether you think I can cut it as a designer or not. After each show airs that I’m on (there are 8 shows, but I can’t tell you how many I’m actually on), I’ll blog about my thoughts on the design process and the problems we had, the challenges we faced – and what I learned to make me appreciate my favorite designs from Dries Van Noten, Temperley, Chanel, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Givenchy, YSL, Balmain, Haider Ackerman, Rick Owens and Martin Margiela all the more.

 

I hope you’ll watch and hope you enjoy the show! From what I observed on the set, when it comes to fashion, this show has a lot of reality – and more. The photo is of the full cast, which includes L.A. jewelry designer Kathy Rose, and clothing designers Akiko, Coco Kliks, Emil Gampe, and Thai Nguyen. – Merle Ginsberg

 

The new season of “Project Runway” begins on its new home network, Lifetime, on Thursday August 20th at 10 p.m. – only 6 weeks away. And now Lifetime, in hopes of making sure those PR viewers follow the show to its nascent network from its former home on Bravo, are going to work, promoting the future season heavily on their website, mylifetime.com. Today they’ve posted the photos of the 16 brand new designers on the show – who run the gamut from their 20’s to their 50’s, and hail from NYC to Dallas to Savannah to Seattle – and their casting sessions, fashion tips, audition videos – and even portolio drawings. You’ll even be able to see sketches for upcoming “Project Runway” challenges. The ones featured here are from designer Althea Harper from Dayton, Ohio. If you’re a PR diehard, you can get going on the website now – and watch back episodes on its former network, www.bravo.com.

Meanwhile, we can’t help but be excited that “Entourage” is coming back to HBO this Sunday night – YAY!

Ratings on fashion television reality shows is getting really interesting – since there are many more of them to come. And now that the biggest of all of them, “Project Runway,” commences on another network – Lifetime – on August 20th, and Bravo is launching new shows – like “The Fashion Show,” with Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland. Bravo, which helped create the biggest hit – “Project Runway” – is now in a position of competing with a show it managed to make into the big hit it’s morphed into. Life on tv is weird, for sure.
“Project Runway” got four million viewers in its fifth and final season on Bravo, according to today’s (June 22) New York Times Business section. “The Fashion Show,” launched this May, has only managed to cull about about under a million viewers. There’s no announcement yet about a second season pickup, but that’s not unusual. The problem is – there’s been no “water cooler” talk about “The Fashion Show,” and no one seems to care who will win; the cast has not garnered any particular press. “Project Runway” always seemed to be part of any discussion of tv or fashion.
Yet Bravo tells the NY Times that, for a freshman effort, under a million viewers for TFS is not bad – and that “Project Runway” started with half a million viewers in its first season, then rose to two million viewers by the end of the first season. But, of course, Bravo has a giant hit franchise in “The Real Housewives” series, so they can be more magnanimous at the moment. We hear the casting on the Housewives of Beverly Hills version of the show, which will start shooting this September, is narrowed down to about a hundred local divas, and there are a lot of names we know. Seems the personal shoppers at Barneys are keeping a tally on which of their top spenders will make the cut! So if you want any casting info, go to the designer floor of Barneys and just talk about housewives. It’s straight out of “The Women”!!
- Merle Ginsberg