Project Acces­sory pre­miered last night after the Project Run­way. While the show’s pro­duc­ers were care­ful to stick (tooclosely) to the tried-and-true PR for­mat, the mak­ing of acces­sories has it’s own con­sid­er­a­tions that need to be accom­mo­dated. This is where the show felt like a six inch bracelet around a seven inch wrist.

Mak­ing a neck­lace, belt and an acces­sory of choice that exhibits style, detail, and a wow fac­tor takes cre­ativ­ity. Pulling all three pieces together as a look against the back­drop of a ubiq­ui­tous t-shirt and jeans takes more inge­nu­ity than fash­ion sense. If the chal­lenge is to show­case orig­i­nal­ity, then give the con­tes­tants a way to hunt and gath­er­ing their raw mate­ri­als that sparks inspi­ra­tion. Or, at the very least, make it inter­est­ing. Watch­ing them dump­ster dive into a few brown boxes and bang away at chairs and what­ever else they could break apart was silly, and a lit­tle dull. Take them to a tag sale, a flea mar­ket, or a Sal­va­tion Army (thereby pro­mot­ing recy­cling and giv­ing to a char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tion simul­ta­ne­ously) and let them loose. The point of every chal­lenge should be to pro­voke thought, stir the pot, and then see what the design­ers come up with. The show should make the tasks rel­a­tively com­plex with a good does of real­ism that makes them feel hon­estly dif­fi­cult. The con­tes­tants shouldn’t be walk­ing around with spears on a set dressed with stuffed animals.

Drama on these shows is a given. Except where we’ve seen the same cry­ing jag once too many times. Nicolina’s melt­down, while I’m sure authen­tic in every way, was the only bit of ten­sion on the show. This is where Project Acces­sory lets its audi­ence down. If PR can bring a spot­light to the craft­ing and je-ne-sais-quoi of cre­at­ing clothes that women want to wear, why can’t PA show us the intri­cate process of mak­ing jew­elry? Cotrice’s com­ment about mak­ing find­ings for her neck­lace by cut­ting two hun­dred bits of wire to make loops — and for this hand cramp­ing work alone she should not have been sent home — was the only real trial-by-fire that made the show feel authen­tic in its own right. Instead Nicol­ina cries on cam­era, cuts up a suit­case, and gets to stay on for week two.

Lastly, some­thing needs to be said about the run­way show where the audi­ence gets to see the design­ers work in, or rather, on the flesh. I review run­way jew­elry sea­son­ally, how­ever, I do not only review it as it walks down the cat­walk. I also look at it in still shots so that I can assess the details. It would be a bonus for the audi­ence to be able to appre­ci­ate exactly what the designer has accom­plished. Close up shots of the jew­elry, belts, and hand­bags while the designer is explain­ing them would add a new and nec­es­sary dimen­sion to this facet of the Project series. It also gave me a lit­tle pause when the judges didn’t get up from their seats to view the pieces more inti­mately. And I would just like to add that any­one men­tor­ing a designer needs to speak to them from the same side of the table: Tim Gunn never makes his cri­tiques feel like a job interview.

I will be watch­ing the series and will com­ment here often so please do check in on Fri­days. Have a lovely weekend…