Project Runway's First Lifetime Lineup, Revealed

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Project Runway's Lifetime revival is a mere six weeks away (August 20, to be exact), and today the network has revealed which 16 characters have made the first cut. Although the action has been transplanted to FIDM from New York's Parsons Institute, only one LA-based designer will be taking part—West Hollywood's Johnny Sakalis, who held a few shows at LA Fashion Week earlier in the decade and has applied for the show four times. We had a look at his interview tape and he appears harmless, but Tim Gunn tells People.com: "Johnny will be polarizing...People will love him, or hate him."

Most of the other designers come from quieter enclaves (Shakopee, MN? Garland, TX?), with a Kim Kardashian lookalike from the Republic of Georgia adding a dash of international flair. Even New York has only lent us two designers this season—a recent design graduate and a 50-year-old from Harlem called Epperson, who Gunn describes as "elder-statesmanlike". From People.com's interview, the only designer we're even slightly intrigued by at this point is Malvin Vien, a 24-year-old from Colorado with Christian Siriano hair and a love of "rural Chinese farmers, Japanese ghost stories and insect anatomy." But, then again, the show has never attracted the biggest of names, so we're choosing to hold judgment until the first episode airs.
· Meet Project Runway's Newest Designers! [People.com]
· Project Runway [Official Site]