PR: CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Woohoo!

Darlings, we're going to type softly and ask all of you to do so as well, because, to borrow Auntie Mame's charmingly useful double entendre, we're a little hung this morning (And Dora the Explorer is currently playing at top volume on Laura's TV right now, to Finn's eternal delight. Why does that little wide-eyed bitch have to scream everything?). Also, please don't type in all-caps, because it makes our eyes hurt.

Now. How about THAT one, kittens? Isn't it great when the super-nice guy wins it? Which isn't to say that there aren't super-nice guys and gals who won it in previous years, but Seth A is SUCH a sweet guy (who, we suspect, really needed this break), PLUS we totally agreed with the judges' decision, so it wasn't just the nice guy that won, it was the RIGHT guy.

Okay, okay. We realize we just broke our own rule and used all-caps, but a little head-pounding pain is to be expected when we're so excited. And we really were as excited and happy as if an old friend had won instead of someone we met an hour before the show started.

Because - oh, did we not mention? - we were sitting directly behind Seth, his lovely wife Tina, and their two sitcom-ready children throughout the entire show, privy to every out-of-the-side-of-his-mouth comment and interjection.

In fact, he and his wife immediately turned around at every commercial break to talk to us about everything from how much he loves his "big sister" Mila to how much he loved Faith Hill and how much he respected Nina. In fact, come to think of it, not one bad word was said about anybody (although we suspect he was following the "if you can't say anything nice" rule, since several prominent names never came up).

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves, aren't we? Back to the show (and don't expect the pictures to exactly match the text going forward).

We will, of course, be exhaustively breaking down each and every look from the three finalists' collections, but for now, suffice it to say that we think the judges made the clearly correct choice, even if there were some slightly problematic pieces in his collection. At the end of the day, as Nina reminded us (in the best judging session the show's had in a while) it's about creativity and Seth Aaron's collection, no matter what criticisms one might have for it, certainly demonstrated that.

Okay, enough of that. Back to us.

Long-time minions who have everything we ever wrote committed to memory no doubt remember those star-struck days of yesteryear when we attended our very first finale party at the end of Season 3 as guests of Laura. Timidly we approached the designers, introducing ourselves, sometimes to polite confusion as they had only barely heard of our blog, if at all. In fact, you might remember our walking-on-the-clouds retelling of Tim's parting words to us as the S3 party broke up for the night: "You guys are in the inner circle now!"

Well, what a difference 4 years and 5000 posts make. See, it's like this: Bluefly were the hosts of this little shindig and partnered with Laura to bring this together as a combination Project Runway/"Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?" party. Laura, knowing true power when she sees it, turned to her gays and asked us to contact as many PR alums as we could find, which essentially means all of them.

Since there never were official finale parties for seasons 5 and 6, this reunion of that tiny brotherhood of PR contestants was the first and the biggest in a long time, and we helped make it happen. Respect my authoriteh, bitches!

To compare it to our first finale party, instead of us with starstruck wide eyes approaching the designers, it was the designers who approached us, without fail. Seriously. All we had to do was stand there because eventually every designer (except Seth A and Anthony, who were understandably the belles of the ball) in attendance came up to us and gave us big hugs. Now would be a good time to run down the list (and the pictures don't exactly match the captions from here on out):

Althea: Honey, if you're reading this, we apologize for gushing so much whenever we see you but seriously, you are drop-dead gorgeous, girl. If we made too much of the fact that you're so jaw-droppingly tall, we apologize but let's face it: you were the one wearing the kickass 5-inch heels, not us.

Kara Janx: What a doll. We so rarely get to see her but when we do it's impossible not to walk away with a big smile. She's just so much fun. Kara, if you're reading this, we're holding you to your promise that you'll be sending us your look book soon. Our readers love seeing what you've got going on.

Epperson: You seriously could not meet a sweeter, nicer guy. He joked a bit about how he was edited to be the quiet one and assured us that he and Qristyl remain on good terms with each other and stay in contact. Their little pissymatch from last season was totally a product of their exhaustion and stress and didn't reflect their feelings about each other at all.


The Italian Stallions, Joe Faris and Kevin Christiana: Straight boys are so cute, aren't they? Two of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Seriously. We know we're saying that a lot, but in every case, we mean it.

Anthony: Okay, this is the one we suspect you all want to hear about. It was a moment right out of a gay sitcom.

"Hi Anthony. We're Tom and Lorenzo."
"Oh. (pause as the light goes on) Ooooohhhh."
All three of us in unison: "Be nice, now!"

He was exactly what you think: a walking soundbite generator. He assured us that he both regrets what he said about bloggers and wasn't even thinking of us when he said that stuff. We threw our drinks in his face anyway.

Emmett: Aw. We barely got time to chat with our best pal. We had schmoozing to do and he had to leave early, but not before we made him take off his ascot to prove he didn't have a hickey. Let's all hate on these two ridiculously tall and good looking blonde creatures, shall we?

Maya: We barely got to speak to her, but she thanked us for our interview, which she said was one of her favorites in terms of giving her the chance to explain herself. She read the comments in that post and was pleased to see that so many T Lo readers supported her decision.

Stella & Malan: Darlings, we barely saw a glimpse of you!

Seth A: "Hi Seth Aaron, we're Tom and Lorenzo." "You BASTARDS!" Followed immediately by hugs. He is exactly the hyperactive teenager in a grownup's body you see on television (Seriously, how cute was that snow angel maneuver on the runway?) and told us that he loved reading us when we complimented his work but loved it even more when we criticized him. "I'm weird that way."

And this will (hopefully) be the last times we toot our own horns in this post, but it was incredibly touching that as soon as Seth A's win was announced, he hugged and kissed his wife and children and immediately turned around to high-five us.

In fact, he was handed a mike and ordered to give a speech and after thanking his wife and kids, he thanked us for our support. How fucking sweet is that guy? We admitted to both him and his wife that, for the first time IN PROJECT RUNWAY HISTORY, we both got a little choked up over the win. Seriously, no matter who you may have been rooting for this season, you only need to spend 20 minutes with Seth Aaron to realize that, whether you love his work or not, for once, the nice guy finished first. It wasn't the greatest season of Project Runway, but it was one of the happiest endings ever.

Special thanks to Monica from Bluefly.com who, along with a gaggle of ridiculously good-looking and stylish Bluefly minions, put on a truly fun finale party. The little cupcakes with the flies on them were a nice touch. This was the most fun we've ever had at any finale party event. It was fun and relaxed and conducive to meeting and talking with everyone there.

And yes, our bloggy worlds collided when Kelly Cutrone showed up. Several people asked us if we were going to introduce ourselves but we'll admit it: we were total pussies about it. After all, we had some MIGHTY critical things to say that went quite a bit beyond the "all said with LOVE" tenor of our Project Runway posts. We will say she seems very nice and personable, but more importantly, she's charismatic as hell. You can see why she got where she got in her career.

And finally, on a more T Lo Community-oriented note:
Let's all give it up for Gorgeous Things, who not only took half these pictures, but who showed everyone how you celebrate the end of your chemo: IN STYLE, BITCHES!

And thanks also to the fabulous Gotham Tomato, who took the other half of these pictures. We have the best minions, wouldn't you say?

Bonus trivia question: Which dress did NOT appear in Laura's collection? Extra special points if you can remember where it was worn and by whom.

Okay, two more things:

One) We will get to that explosive reunion in another post, don't you worry, and

Two) We did not do what every gay male couple should do when dressing for an event: check with each other to make sure we weren't dressed alike. Result: Brokeback Mountain. We have no idea why we both wore cowboy plaids, but we told everyone it was an homage to Seth A's collection. No one bought it.


[Photo Credit: myLifetime.com/Gotham Tomato/Gorgeous Things]


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Labels: Project Runway, Project Runway Season 7, Project Runway Season 7 Episode 14, Seth Aaron Henderson