Arena TV are looking very slick with their line up this year. The ad above outlines the fashion shows for 2012.

These include Project Runway Australia, The Rachel Zoe Project, Mad Fashion and Wag Nation. I would not have thought Wag Nation was fashion show but I suppose the clothes the WAG’s are going to be wearing will be nice.

Former Project Runway Australia host, Kristy Hinzes has given birth to a baby girl in New York City last week.

The baby’s name has yet to be released. It is the first baby for 31 year old Kristy, but is the third for her husband 67 year old Jim Clark. He has two grown up children from a previous marriage.

Congratulations.

Twenty-one year old Dylan Cooper was the surprise winner of  Project Runway Australia Season Three. He won with his pastel and print collection.

Favourite to win Johnny Schembri came third. It must have been because of the perspex, I am not sure why he thought it was so fabulous. It made his beautiful cuts adn designs look cheap.

Craig Braybrook the evening wear designer came second must have been disappointed. However Kirrily Johnston in judging queried whether he was just a very good made to order designer. He looked devastated that he did not win. And I didn’t quite believe that “he was not disappointed at all”.

Both the young boys have a huge futures.

Do you think the right person won?

It is amazing how every Monday without fail there is a yarn about Australia’s Next Top Model in the papers. Normally involving something judge Alex Perry said or did not say. Always handy when the episode is going to air tonight….

This time it comes from Project Runway Australia finalist Craig Braybrook who said to the Herald Sun that Alex Perry and the Project Runway contestants used to make negative comments about fat people.

The article states:

Known for his catty comments, the Melbourne designer couldn’t resist letting slip that contestants and mentor Alex Perry would often make swipes about curvy people on the set of the Foxtel reality series.

“On the show he was always like ‘I hate fat people’,” Braybrook said.

“He used to say it all the time.”

Last week Perry denied he was a “fattist” after copping a barrage of criticism for describing a size 8 Australia’s Next Top Model contestant, Alissandra Moone , as “overstuffed luggage”.

Perry was slammed in the media and on social networking sites after he led the charge to send Moone, 18, packing when she could not fit into a size 10 designer dress.

The Perrygate saga followed an angry war of words with former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester, who claims Perry hates fat women and had openly mocked her body.

Perry described Rochester’s claims as reprehensible and said there was no way Moone was a size 8 when she was on the show.

“Somehow everyone thinks I hate fat people … I have somehow become the new skinny ambassador,” Perry said at the time.

“I can dress a big girl better than anybody.”

The Project Runway Australia finale just happens to be on Arena TV tonight as well at 8.30pm, and the Australia’s Next Top Model episode  is on Fox 8 at 7.30pm.

If you want to see the previous Alex Perry’s stories click here, here, and here.

Sorry I  have been a bit lax with my Project Runway recaps, fortunately or unfortunately the free to air reality TV has been overwhelming over the past few months.

However I will make some quick comments about the final three.  It was no surprise that Johnny, Craig and Dylan made the final three as they have been consistently the stand out performers of the show. Johnny is a real talent who I think Craig is a tad jealous of.

He keeps on say Johnny is a favourite of the judges and the one to beat.

I was upset for Nerida that she choked so badly on her haute couture dress. I am sure her former teachers were also choking as she announced she did not know what haute couture was. Clearly not on the fashion school curriculum anymore. Dylan was criticised for recycling ideas but he got through.

For people thinking of going on a reality TV show, take note of Matcho Suba whose personality and european extravaganza mantra got him through to the top five.  His designs were appalling. He single handedly was trying to bring chiffon back into vogue. He only did two decent designs the whole time he was on the show. One was in the retro challenge when he was paired with Craig, and the other was the resort wear challenge.

Anyway he will be the only one remembers from Season Three Project Runway.

Twitter was all in a flap last night about Project Runway Australia, where the editing missed the ending and went straight into next weeks preview? Did anyone else get effected by this?

Craig moaned to camera that he thought Tim’s dress from last week was worse than Amanda’s but she was the one to go. Hellooo this is reality TV, Amanda is not going to give as much entertainment to the viewer as Tim is.

Tip if you are on a show like this make sure you show personality or are controversial it can keep in you a bit longer even if you are not talented.

The challenge for episode three was to create a chic modern day look for the glamorous girl around town, and they were not off to Rathdowne Fabrics, they had to pick the fabric from second hand clothes and they only had 3 minutes to grab it. They also only had 8 hours to make it, and the twist they had to hand their bags to the person on the left.

Craig was not happy that he got Tim’s and he had a lot of khaki. Though Johnny was pretty underwhelmed by Craig’s bag as well.

Tim was creating tension in the work room, by taking an extra table, but he seemed oblivious to it all. All the other contestants were taking the piss out of him when he was having trouble making button holes, and was being a bit of a diva.

Alex Perry and did some mentoring and showed his design philosophy and why he was so successful when he told Matcho “I don’t know any girl that puts a suit on and wants to look fat”.

So Matcho changed tack and made a dress that would make a girl look like a prostitute. I don’t see a long career in fashion for this guy.

Clare had done a nice skirt and top with suede  bits on it, but what is with her eyeliner?

The guest judge this week was Terry Bivano a nice bit of cross publicity, as she is in the WAG’s show currently being made by Foxtel.

Megan Gale dropped a bombshell and said it was a double elimination, so they will down to eight. If the point of the elimination was to create viewer tension it didn’t as we did not know about it until later in the episode.

The parade started and mini skrits were the order of the day. The designers must have been psychic and realised Terry Bivano who only wears short skirts was going to be guest judge.

Johnny’s dress was fantastic, and I really liked Craig’s as well.

Kirrily praised Rachael’s design without the jacket as did Jarrod Clark and he even liked the jacket.

Matcho’s was criticised for being over the top. Anna’s design was described as grunge. Tim was told they would have liked to see more innovation, and once he added the accessories his model looked like an air hostess.

Clare won. Anna and Tim were eliminated. I noted no one rushed to hug him, except for Rachael but she was just in his proximity so had to. He also gave them a speech about how they needed this more than him. The look on everyones face was priceless. I really wish he was staying in the competition, not for his design flair as he had none, but for all the friction he created.

Seriously if Anthony was freaked out by getting yellow fabric on a challenge where they got to show what their design aesthetic is how would he cope in a challenge where he had to sew with food products or other materials he was not familiar with. He would be in a corner curled up in the foetal position. It was not a hard challenge.

However as Alex Perry said the first challenge is probably the hardest they are dealing with time pressures, TV cameras and an unfamiliar work environment.

They had to make a cocktail dress that showed their design style, using the fabric and colour that was given to them.

Anyway the good news is Project Runway Australia is back for a third season after a one year hiatus, and it has had a make over. Personally I didn’t have a problem with the old version but it is good to keep things fresh.

Megan Gale is the new host, replacing Kirsty Hinze. The contestants mentor Henry Roth, who I had loved, is out replaced with fashion designer and Australia’s Next Top Model judge Alex Perry.

The two new judges are fashion designer Kirrily Johnston and fashion industry guru Jarrod Clark. Each week there will be a guest judge. We didn’t see that much of Jarrod this episode, as Kirrily and guest judge Camilla Franks got most of the airtime in the judging sequence. Alex looked very relaxed in the role and look forward to seeing what type of advice he gives over the next few episodes.

Megan Gale looked fabulous, but did appear little  be nervous at the beginning, understandably. It is hard filling Kirsty Hinze and conversely Heidi Klums shoes.

Looking over the contestants there does seem to be a good mix of young raw talent like Nerida, Rachael, Dylan and Johnny. Mixed with some older personalities like Tim, Gabrielle and Craig, who I think as the show goes on will give us some good reality TV. Is Tim, who has worked at Ralph Lauren already cast as the villain, and you can see an ageing queens spat between him and Craig before the end of the series.

Interesting Craig who does bridal and evening wear in real life should have hit this challenge out of the ball park, however he completely choked. He had some nice red fabric, and even Alex when he looked at it when it was being made was positive and said it looked very Valentino. It turned into something that was very ill fitting year 12 formal dress. However the hem line was longer then most 18 year olds would like. But they may have liked the sleeves up or down approach which was an accident. It is a bit hard for the established designers to have to get back into the groove of sewing when outworkers have probably done it for them for years.

I also thought Matcho was a bit unlucky to have his design to be dumped in the bottom three. Ok it wasn’t something anyone would really wear but it was well made and original. Some of the other designs were poorly sewn.

The judges signalled out Gabrielle’s floaty dress for praise, but I thought it looked like there was a gaping hole in the back. And I am sure I saw one of the other dresses not even covering a models butt. She made it top three, with Dylan and Johnny.

There was little suspense with who would be the winning design as Johnny’s was the outstanding design. It must have felt good for his gorgeous African model who was picked last by the designers to be their muse to be on the winning team.

Bottom three was Craig, Anthony and Matcho, with Anthony having to go. Was it the most unfinished frock ever to grace a Project Runway show?

By the way congratulations to Arena TV for their outstanding marketing campaign in the lead up to the premiere with the premiere audience up 53 per cent on the average audience for the latest season of the US version.

Project Runway Australia on Arena TV Monday nights at 8.30pm.  Encores of the episode are on at 1pm (AEST) Tuesday and Saturday at 9.30pm (AEST).

This the second of my new vlog casts, and the good news is the sound and mouth is in sync this week as I moved onto imovie.

Topics discussed Masterchef Australia on whether it has become the Clayton’s Cooking Show the cooking show you have when you don’t have a cooking show. The Amazing Race Australia, The Block, Project Runway Australia, and The Real Housewives.

Good news for Project Runway Australia fans, with news the third season will kick of on Monday July 4 on Arena TV at 8.30pm.

There is a whole new cast. The show will  be hosted by Megan Gale, with Alex Perry as mentor.

I don’t know how Alex Perry is juggling his workload, as Australia’s Next Top Model is currently filming as well. He also has his fashion design commitments and last week I read he was designing an apartment complex in Brisbane.

Fashion designer Kirrily Johnston is a new judge, as well as industry expert Jarrad Clark.

Clark’s experience spans working with the major creative heads in fashion, Australia and worldwide, as the Global Event Production Director of IMG Fashion.

And we have the names of the contestants.

Five designers from New South Wales; Anthony Allars, Dylan Cooper, Johnny Schembri, Nerida Bourne and Rachael Perks, four designers from Victoria; Claire Hocking,Craig Braybrook, Gabrielle Stephens and Matcho Suba and three designers from Western Australia; Anna McEachran, Amanda McKenna and Timothy Godbold will battle it out for first prize.

Also expect to see Collette Dinnigan, Camilla Franks, Dannii Minogue and  Carla Zampatti, as guest judges.

Cannot wait – this is one of the best Australian reality TV show produced. By the looks of the preview it looks like again the production values are high.

Also if you know any of the contestants email me or make a comment and tell us about them.