Project Runway is back on NBC’s Bravo for Season 17. Host supermodel Heidi Klum has been replaced by supermodel Karlie Kloss and mentor Tim Gunn has been replaced by one of his Project Runway mentees, Christian Siriano. Fashion magazine editor-in-chief Nina Garcia (Elle Magazine) is still a judge but with two new judges: Lady Gaga fashion designer Brandon Maxwell and Elaine Welteroth, the first African-American editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue (and the youngest!). Prior to Teen Vogue, she was the senior beauty editor at Glamour and the beauty and style editor at Ebony.
[Elaine wears a blue pantsuit like this one by De La Vali, $145]
Welteroth has also added author to her resume. Her inspirational memoir, More Than Enough, reveals what it was like growing up as “the unstoppable child of a unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California” and becoming “the only black woman in the room” at work. Welteroth grew up in Fremont, California where 3.3% of the population is African-American; her father is white, her mother is black.
Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay (Selma), the first black female director to have her film nominated for an Academy Award, wrote the foreword to Welteroth’s book. See link above to pre-order: it will be released in June. Project Runway airs Thursdays at 8 pm on Bravo.
