After last night's Project Runway episode thinned the contestants down to the single digits, the remaining nine designers showed their final collections this morning at Lincoln Center. Though the show is known for pulling twists and tweaking the number of finalists at the last minute, there will apparently be only three contestants left in the running for real when the final episodes roll around in November. So click through our slideshows of all the collections to guess who'll make the cut. (Yes, we're still rooting for Olivier.) Lauren Hutton spoke to Michael Kors for the new issue of Interview, in a long Q&A that includes amusing anecdotes about taking acid in the sixties (Hutton), a childhood love of beads and cutoff shorts (Kors), and the state of modeling today. michael kors crossbody: I still think it’s weird when models come in on go-sees. I don’t understand how anyone can think that a model is a mannequin. I like to think of them as just women.
HUTTON: As people. KORS: People. When they come in, I’m always like, “Where are you from? Tell me about your life.” That’s the first thing I say. We were laughing, though, because two seasons ago, I said, “You know what? These girls we’re seeing are too young. They are children.” It’s silly. HUTTON: Well, I started at 21, but most of the girls I was modeling with were 18 or 16 — sometimes even 14. KORS: Yeah, and the 14-year-olds are really tricky. I mean, they’re children. I said two years ago, “No models under 16.” Well, of course, right after I said that, we started seeing all of these girls from Eastern Europe, and every girl who’d walk in, you’d say, “Hi. What’s your name?” And she’d be like, “I’m Svetlana.” I’m like, “Svetlana, where are you from?” “Ukraine.” “Svetlana, how old are you?” “16.” Next girl walks in—she’s from Eastern Europe and 16. Next one? Eastern European and 16. I was like, “Was there a bus?” [Hutton laughs] But I still think it’s a tricky thing because no matter how beautiful you might be at 15 or 16, the simple truth is that you haven’t lived enough to really know how to project anything in a photograph. It’s like a kind of blank beauty.
The last time Project Runway showed in the tents, it was a year ago, and Jessica Simpson was the guest judge — this after a season in which the Lifetime show tapped noted fashionista and design savant Faith Hill, whose affinity for ill-fitting pants has been well-documented in the opening of Monday Night Football. So when we walked into the tent this time around and saw seats near Klum & Co. labeled “L’Wren Scott” and “Jennifer Love Hewitt,” it seemed like a genuine toss-up as to which one might be the panelist — one is in fashion, the other … wears clothes, and is Lifetime’s most noted and possibly only Golden Globe nominee for her role as a massage-therapist prostitute (prostisseur?), who also wore clothes. They're both totally qualified! In the end, it was tall-drink-of-water Scott who strolled the catwalk — in a tight-fitting and frankly pretty groovy red dress — alongside Nina Garcia, michael kors handbags, and Heidi, who wore a daring backless jumpsuit that flashed a tremendous amount of sideboob.