TVSquad

It wasn't a fierce season for Project Runway. No Cristian Soriano to spice things up. No Wendy Pepper either, speaking of spicy. That said, as the show wrapped up and three designers presented their collections at Fashion Week, the competitive juices were flowing and I was definitely into it. Maybe not as much as previous years, but the Project Runway formula still worked. And most significantly, the final three were all women. As Tim Gunn pointed out, it was the year of the woman on Project Runway.

All in all, the finale wasn't exactly up to the level of previous seasons. The personalities weren't as dramatic or defined. There was no Jeffrey to hate. No pregnant Laura to root for. And no Jay or Santino to giggle over. It's interesting that even Tim Gunn, before this season aired, had said that this group wasn't as distinctive as some other seasons. As usual, Tim was right.

HBO opened its first retail store near Bryant Park in New York City last Thursday. Amy over at NewYorkology took a peek inside the store and posted a few photos, including swag like a calendar from The Sopranos (oooooh!). On top of television show swag and DVDs, the store also sells some $120 handbags named after each gal on Sex and the City. And there are some museum-style items that were actually used on the network's shows, such as shoes that Carrie wore on Sex and the Billy Bass singing fish from The Sopranos.

Apparently the HBO store in NYC has some exclusive items, but you can also do a little HBO shopping online.

[Thanks, Amy!]

(S03E11) Final challenge before Fashion Week, kids. The heat is on!

The designers met with a very orange Nina Garcia at ELLE to talk about their final challenge. She introduced them to ELLE's feature "First Look" and instructed the final four to create an outfit to convey their point of view as designers. They were also told to choose three words to describe and accompany their imaginary collections. Later, there was a not-so-surprising "twist" when Tim told the designers that the winning outfit would be featured in "First Look". O RLY? The designers were given a shortened deadline (six hours short!) and the task of photographing their models to go with their three words. Goodness.