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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that models are seen being fitted into clothes, sometimes lingerie. Designers drink and smoke and use mild profanity. The contestants are all brilliant and creative, but can be two-faced and gossipy about fellow competitors. Instead of focusing on the creative process, the show highlights prima donna personalities and unprofessional behavior.

Families can talk about the unglamorous side of the fashion world, that is, the amount of schooling, hard work, and risk it takes to be a designer. Also, families can talk about the strain of competition; does being a worthy competitor mean foregoing any gestures of cooperation?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Pam Gelman

What tween is not captivated by the world of fashion designers and supermodels? It's a fantasy world of expensive clothes, perfect bodies, and unlimited wallet power. For anyone who's ever casually doodled or formally studied design, PROJECT RUNWAY, in its second season, is a hit, but not without warning.

It's easy to get sucked into this reality black hole. Sixteen designers, ranging from instructors at fashion schools to small-time designers with their own businesses to very young recent grads, compete in weekly design challenges. The final three then create their own lines and present it at the New York Fashion Week in February. The winner gets money, a car, and a spread in Elle magazine. Watching the designers create their pieces in incredibly short amounts of time, with small budgets, and usually with hysteria around them, is awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately, Project Runway does not show more of the design process: sketching, selecting fabric and materials, cutting, pinning, measuring, sewing, detailing. Instead, the viewer sees drama between over-achieving, arrogant personalities as the designers scramble to finish their challenges. This show spends too much time showing contestants cutting down their opponents. Then we get to see their unique designs on the super thin bodies of aspiring models. Is this what we want tweens to be thinking is real?

Heidi Klum is the host and one of the executive producers of the series. She meets with the designers when their challenges are announced and on the runway when their pieces are judged by famous designers and magazine fashion editors. Tim Gunn, head of the Parsons School for Design, is the liaison to the designers and guides them through their challenges.

For kids serious about design, the show will offer a peek into the nasty side of the fashion industry -- what's behind the glitz and glitter and bling. But beware, this show is a very slippery slope and hard to turn off.

Fans may also enjoy fictional, scripted takes on the fashion world in the comedies Ugly Betty and Just Shoot Me.

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