Nick Verreos Casting Dish: Project Runway Season 7 Casting Videos...even more!

Baby Seals and an Ode to Courreges?Heidi and Tim Giving It To You: Season 7 Project Runway

Continuing with my Casting Behind-The-Scenes Blog--here are two more designers that will be part of Season 7 of Project Runway and also came through the day I was lucky enough to have been a judge at the Los Angeles Casting. We did the castings on Memorial Day (back in May '09) at the W Westwood and there was a big ol' pool party occurring. I joked with Tim Gunn that he should have brought his swim trunks. Needless to say, we never made it to the pool. It was work work work, kids...


Mila Hermanovski:
My memory was definitely refreshed when I saw Mila in her casting video. Several months back, I got a call from someone who was styling my friend and client Carrie Ann Inaba with her on-air wardrobe for Dancing With The Stars (in the past we had worked directly with Carrie Ann or her assistant). Mila arrived at our studio and pulled several of my gowns to fit on her and we spent about an hour discussing how to start a design business, all the stuff I am doing and dressing celebs, as well as being in Downtown LA.
Obviously, I did not realize that she was on the show (remember, those castings took place 8 months ago), but she NEVER mentioned anything the entire time (about the fact that she was on the new season or that I was her casting judge) she was at our studio. I assume that she was probably too scared to say anything (Good Job Lifetime Lawyers!). Who knows.
Onto her casting interview: I thought Mila's designs were cute and retro--very Courreges-meets-Pierre Cardin (look them up kiddies) with a touch of Narciso Rodriguez. I liked the seaming and construction. She could be a "quiet storm" on this season.


Jesus Estrada:
Jesus was quite interesting. At first glance he reminded me of one of my fashion design students from my FIDM classes: Young, "fashiony-looking", confident, and a bit bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as they say. When we asked to have a closer inspection of his garments, we were shocked: One of the collars was BABY SEAL!!!! Well, as you know Tim Gunn is a PETA GOD, so he almost THREW him out of the castings--to be banished to some poor sweat shop. I just couldn't believe he was showing this to us. And when we questioned him on the OH-SO-WRONG choice of using that material, he looked as if we were speaking a foreign language. Crazy. But something in the rest of his non-baby-seal collared garments intrigued us so we led him to the next round--with a warning: NO MORE BABY SEALS!!!!

Nick Verreos Dishes on Project Runway Season 7 Casting Videos...Continued

Judging Buddies: Nick Verreos, Marie Claire's Zoe Glassner and Tim Gunn, LA Castings Season 7 Project Runway

When I first saw the new batch of Project Runway "kids", I thought I knew NONE of them. Or shall I say, no one looked "familiar". Then I began watching these casting videos and realized that I was actually there when many of them came to the casting in Los Angeles and we ended up moving them to the next level! You see, we did these castings so long ago--almost a year ago. I had to "refresh" my memory by viewing these casting videos to remember who these contestants were. Here, I continue with my "Casting Inside Dish":

Christiane King:
After viewing the casting video, I totally remembered Christiane. She had a lovely presence and nice humble aura (no, I-want-to-be-a-Star-I'm-a-Diva attitude). She had tried for Project Runway several times before and obviously was not giving up! I remember that she was originally from Cote D'Ivoire (misspelled in the MyLifetime site btw). The only question we had with her involved fit and a "taste issue". I foresee the latter as maybe being her Achilles Heel. I liked her royal blue architectural shift dress but the rest were a bit, well, Miss Guyana at the Miss World Pageant gown...


Jay Nicolas Sario:
I remember Jay Nicolas, he was a stand-out FOR SURE! His designs were new, modern, fresh and the fit was spot-on. We all loved it. There was a lot of work and a definite eye for detail. I'm not sure if he can replicate all that work within the restricted Project Runway time frame, but who knows. I am excited to see his creations this season. Definitely a favorite for the final "tableau", at least from what he showed us at the casting.

Stay tuned for more of my Nick Verreos: Inside The Casting dish...

Nick Verreos Dishes on Project Runway Season 7 Casting Videos

Project Runway is BAAAACK!!!!!OK, let us breathe a sigh of relief and joy: Project Runway is BACK!!! As many of you may know by now, Season 7 Project Runway is debuting this week (Thursday night of course!) and someone was either reading my BLOG or... they realized it was the 21st Century and Project Runway needed to be in HD!!! (hello???). I am so excited the show is back and (SIGH) it will not be in Los Angeles anymore at my fabulous Fashion Institute of Design and Merchadising/FIDM campus (yes, all those LA-haters can be happy that it's back in the Big Apple). We can rest assured that Michael Kors and Nina Garcia's contracts got signed--all the T's and the I's were crossed--and yes, they will be seated in those judges seats every week.
I was honored to have been asked to judge the Los Angeles castings of Season 7 at the chic W Hotel , along with Tim Gunn and Marie Claire's Zoe Glassner. Here are a couple of the first "Casting" videos of the new Season 7 Contestants and my thoughts (as best I can remember):


Amy Sarabi:
We were all instantly fascinated by Amy. If I remember correctly, she was from the San Francisco Bay Area and she worked in the Gap Design Team. Her designs were as far from Gap as one could get! I loved her construction, her ruffled and pleated bolero jackets. The garments she brought in were flawlessly made and oh-so-directional. To me, she was a Stand-out. Should be a front-runner.


Anna Lynett:
Anna's designs were sublime and had a "quiet" elegance about them, if I remember. Her designs didn't scream, they whispered. It is hard to tell in this casting video, but her garments were actually really nice and made us "stand-up" and take notice (I'm sure you guys are like "All I see is a lot of boring gray!"). Her demeanor was very sweet--she might get "eaten up" by the "Reality Show" machine however...

Stay tuned for more of my Season 7 Casting Nick Verreos Memory Lane...