If you haven't heard, because you live under a fashion-smothering boulder, or are male and therefore do not watch Lifetime to see the 100 commercials per hour for it, Project Runway is about to premiere and this season is going to be the best yet. Doubt me? If you do, you're insane and clearly haven't perused my Season 7 Contestant Guide yet, but I will prove it to you anyway. Tampa's very own Ben Chmura is one of the designers sewing his way to a spot in Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. In honor of our hometown boy and our undying love for fashion (read: bitchy designers stabbing each other in the back and crying uncontrollably) Creative Loafing will be bringing you a weekly podcast to discuss all the happenings on and off the runway. So get out your cry count score cards and L'oreal Paris makeup bags and join us, won't you?
The first of these enthralling podcasts features Ben Chmura, the man who not only won Best Local Clothing Designer in Creative Loafing's 2007 Best of the Bay Readers' Poll (we know how to pick 'em), but has also breathed the same air as Tim Gunn *swoon*. Needless to say, I was very excited to talk to him about his time on the runway, his favorite places to shop in Tampa, Cruella Deville herself (aka Nina Garcia) and of course, Lady Gaga. Take a listen and then come hang out with Ben this week at Ben Chmura's Project Runway Viewing Party (Thurs., Jan. 14, 8:30-11:30 p.m., Rawbar Sushi, 777 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa).
Hear the interview after the jump!
