Project Runway Season 9 Begins Next Week--Contestants from LA Castings I judged!

Project Runway is BAAACK!!!!

Next week, Project Runway Season 9 will debut on Thursday July 28th!! As you may know from reading my little ol' blog here--back in May, I was asked to be one of the LA Casting Judges for Season 9 which took place at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel.

I, along with Zanna Roberts Rassi, Senior Fashion Editor at Marie Claire Magazine, and Season 7 Winner Seth Aaron Henderson (who had flown in that morning and got back on a flight that same night!) took a look at lots of contestants that day and said "yes" and "maybe" and "uh, nope" to them...My job was done months ago--so I waited until now, to see if anyone from our LA Castings had made it through!

And they did. Two of the very LARGE 20 person ensemble were from the LA Casting--First up:


Joshua Christensen, 29, is from Washington but lives in LA (or at least I think so since that's where we saw him). I recognized him the minute he walked into the castings because not too long ago (in March), I had presented him with an FIDM Scholarship to be part of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Advanced Fashion Design Program, otherwise known as "Debut". He just graduated this year from FIDM and was to begin his "Advanced Fashion Design" Debut Year this Summer. Hopefully the filming of the Season ended just in time for him to get right back into class (or maybe he's taking a year off and that's being postponed--who knows??). He was never a student of mine and therefore, I really did not know him--so I was able to judge him without any "conflict of interest" as they say. I remember LOVING his menswear designs...

Below is Joshua Christensen's LA Casting Video:

And the other contestant we saw was a man by the name of Bert Keeter:


Bert is 57 years old and attended Parsons back "in the day" (before any of y'all were probably born!)--1975-1977. He has a very solid Resume, working with some of the top American Designers like Bill Blass, Holly Harp, Arnold Scassi and even Halston! I remember him because his story took my breath--and heart away. And the fact that his industry experience was far and beyond anyone else and, to our surprise, his designs were NOT dated and in fact, chic and of-the-moment...well, to me he was a "sure thing". It will be interesting how he handles himself with the young kids vying for the coveted Project Runway Season 9 Winner title...

Below is Bert Keeder's LA Casting Video:

Click HERE to meet the rest of the Designers/Contestants.