Project Runway, a partial esplanation

Over at Pandagon, Jedmunds expresses his outrage at the final results from Bravo's reality show/contest for fashion designers called Project Runway.

I could write a post explaining why I believe Chloe deserved to win and why her collection showed both exceptional construction and a coherent vision. But there's no need to do that because Jedmunds' commenters have expressed it better than I could.

Fuck all that.

I want to talk about why Project Runway is an important reality TV show.

The show's set up has 16 fashion designers who are brought together and assigned a series of outrageous tests. These tests are supposed to challenge the designers to be both creative and efficient. The results are sometimes embarrassing, sometimes amazing, but often just mediocre.

Guess what? That's not reality TV, is is actual life for us "creatives" in the capitalist world. I totaslly recognize that reality.

I have spent years honing the details of my craft, typography, and I know when type is good and when it is great and when it sucks. Every single day I am offered the ability to use this knowledge to create something that is just a little bit better than ordinary and far better than the commonly accepted.

BUT.....

There's almost never enough time to create an outstanding piece of work. There's almost never enough material or vision or time to create an amazing product. There is just the hope that what little I can contribute will make the end product a tiny bit better.

That is what Project Runway illustrates: outrageous demands upon creative people with the occasional spark of genius. More often, we achieve the merely acceptable.

The people on this show, as well as the vast majority of us, could create amazing things if we had the time, the education, the encouragement and the materials to do so.

Capitalism totally sucks because it does not allow this vision to become reality.