Two of the world’s wildest and most controversial women – Lady Gaga and Naomi Campbell – both appear on Bravo’s “Double Exposure” tonight (Tues July 13) at 11pm. If you love a great visual, wild content, and a lot of makeup, check it out or Tivo it! Gaga was shot on the set of a shoot for Hello Kitty, and made a lot of dirty jokes on the set. He also has one of her ex boyfriends with her, who works with her – and this should be interesting to see. Naomi was just – Naomi. Which never disappoints, if you like a good looking train wreck. Someone gives her direction at one point, and she just yells, “NO.” Wild women who run with the wolves – in good clothes!!!

In 2009, Bravo put two new fashion competitions into their reality roster, after losing “Project Runway” to Lifetime network – “The Fashion Show,” with Isaac Mizrahi as host and judge, which was voted on by viewers at home – and “Launch My Line,” which teamed media professionals with young designers to create a full and complete line of clothing. This was hosted and judged by DSquared, Dean and Dan Caten. It’s been debated for months which one of these shows would be picked up for a second season. Or if either one, in fact, would. Now comes word that Bravo is casting for a second season of “The Fashion Show,” with Isaac Mizrahi. Speculation seems to be that Mizrahi himself had a contract for two seasons, and Bravo had to honor it. Also, “Launch My Line” cost a lot more to produce. If you’re a budding designer and want a chance at getting a real jumpstart to your career, go to www.BravoTV.com/casting and follow the instructions to apply via e-mail. Unfortunately, the deadline is April 30th, those you’d have to really hustle. No word on when the show will come back on the air, but with this kind of deadline, we’re suspecting they will shoot in June and it will be back on the air in September, like it was last year.

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker served as executive producer on the “Sex and the City” tv series and now the two films of the genre. But she’s now a producer of a new Bravo reality series coming June 9th at 11pm to the cable channel: “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.” 14 aspiring artists will compete for a hundred thousand dollar prize and a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum. For a young aspiring artist, this is HUGE. L.A.’s own fashionista and art enthusiast China Chow is the\ host – her father Mr. Chow (Michael Chow) is a huge art collector and his restaurants have been home away from home for some very famous artists for many years. China grew up with that. Her late mother, Tina Chow, was a major NY fashion icon – and an artist’s muse as well. New York Gallery owner and literary art contributor Bill Powers, New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, Salon94 gallery owner and curator Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and several guest judges including mix-media artist Jon Kessler, photographer Andres Serrano (who is higly controversial) and realistic painter Richard Phillips will be featured on the show. Leave it to SJP to add some class and culture to reality television! It could be an entirely new day for reality shows if this one takes off!! We could have “America’s Next Classical Pianist,” “American’s Top Ballerina” – who knows?
Meanwhile, SJP stepped out in this chic crinkled chiffon dress for a very early screening – the show doesn’t debut for two months. Clearly, Bravo is looking for press on the show now. We think that dress is one of SJP’s designs for Halston – and the bag is by VBH, very cool. A good look for an art show, to be sure.

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard may be L.A.’s most celebrated decorator: creating the stylish interiors for Cher, Elton John, Aaron Sorkin, Diana Jenkins, Christina Aguilera, Vidal Sassoon, Damon Dash, Tamara Mellon of Jimmy Choo, Edward Norton – the list goes on and on. He also has his own line of furniture, fabrics, candles and rugs. Now he’s going to be a television star – and he’s just starting to shoot a new Bravo show right now titled “Million Dollar Decorator” – which, like “Million Dollar Listing” does with real estate agents to the rich and famous – this show will do with decorators. It will follow three Hollywood major decorators as they work with their fabulous clientele to create gorgeous homes. We’ve seen Martyn Lawrence-Bullard’s own home – it’s simply amazing, and is documented in the book “Hip Hollywood Homes.” Lawrence Bullard also tells us he will have a home decorating book out at the same time as the Bravo show – which he hopes will be fall 2010. We can’t wait. He was born to be a tv star. – MG

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.