for: Project Runway (season 5)

Project Runway is a Peabody Award-winning American reality television series on the Bravo network which focuses on fashion design and is hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum. The contestants compete with each other to create the best clothes and are usually restricted in time, materials, and theme. Their designs are judged and one or more designers are eliminated each week.

On April 7, 2008, the show's producers, Weinstein Company, announced a five-year deal that would relocate the show to Lifetime Television, beginning with Season 6. In response, NBC Universal filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company for violating its contract rights. A recent court decision granted NBCU's request for an injunction, preventing Lifetime from promoting or exhibiting "Runway" until further notice. The show moved production from New York City to Los Angeles.

Format

Project Runway uses progressive elimination to reduce the initial field of 12 or more fashion designers down to 3 or 4 before the final challenge. Each non-finale challenge (the scope of one episode) requires the designers to develop one or several pieces of new clothing to be presented at a runway show. The challenges range in creative diversity to test the designers' ingenuity while maintaining their personal design aesthetic. These challenges may include creating a garment from non-traditional materials, such as: apartment furnishings (Season 3), recyclable materials (Season 3), items from a grocery store (Season 1 & 5), edible food items (Season 1 & 4), plants and flowers (Season 2), using their own clothes that they are wearing (Season 2); to designing for a certain high-profile person (such as actress Brooke Shields, figure skater Sasha Cohen or Miss USA Tara Conner), a corporate fashion line (e.g., Banana Republic; Diane von Furstenberg; Macy's INC), or centered around a specialized theme (such as "cocktail party", "wedding gown", or "prom dress").

The show takes place in New York City (with a short stop in Paris in Season 3) with designers using a workroom at Parsons The New School for Design. They shop for materials at a fabric store in New York's Garment District (usually at MOOD Designer Fabrics) — unless the challenge requires otherwise (e.g. denim jackets and jeans from Levi's, confectionery and souvenirs at the Hershey's Store in Times Square, or fabric at Spandex House in Season 4). The designers are sequestered by grouped genders together at Atlas New York (an apartment building near Parsons) during Seasons 1-3 (back again at Season 5) and at New Gotham during Season 4. While on the show, the designers are prohibited from leaving the apartments without authorization, making unauthorized communication with family or friends, or using the Internet to research designs. Designers are also forbidden to bring pattern books or similar how-to books with them during the show, or risk being disqualified from the competition (as was the case of Keith Michael in Season 3).