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Aired summer 2009 · Filmed in Los Angeles

Los Angeles

The relocation experiment. First season on Lifetime, first off the East Coast, and the only run in the show's history filmed away from the Manhattan workroom the format had been built around.

Filmed
Los Angeles, California
Premiered
Aug 20, 2009
Lifetime · Thursday 10/9c
Episodes
14
Format
Standard format · 16 designers
first Lifetime season, LA-shot
Cast size
16 players
Sixteen designers — the cast size holds steady through the coast move.
Host
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum's sixth season at the helm
On this page5 sections
  1. 01The take
  2. 02The shape of the season
  3. 03Where it sits in the canon
  4. 04Adjacent in the canon
  5. 05Also appears in
01The take

The detour, kept for history.

The detour season. The critical read still calls it a coastal disconnect — the show feels off its rails because it is on the wrong coast.
02The shape of the season

Same headcount, a new coast.

The detour. Project Runway's only season filmed off the East Coast, and its first under a new network. The LA workroom and the LA garment district both read different on camera — the light is wrong, the texture is wrong, the cast feels half a step out of frame. The judging is intact, the format is intact, but the city is doing none of the editorial work the show usually borrows from Manhattan. Included for historical importance.

03Where it sits in the canon

The #21 slot.

Slot #21 of 21 in the Project Runway Editor's Canon. Season six is the detour, and the canon places it last for editorial reasons rather than punitive ones. Project Runway's only season filmed away from the Manhattan workroom and its first under a new network arrived with the format intact and the city wrong. The LA workroom and the LA garment district both read different on camera — the light is wrong, the texture is wrong, the field segments don't carry the weight the New York cycles take for granted. The judging is intact, the format is intact, but the city is doing none of the editorial work the show usually borrows. Included for historical importance.

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05Also appears in

Cross-references.