Project Runway keeps NY fashion week guessing

Ten Project Runway designers -- seven decoys and three finalists -- unveiled their collections on Thursday, leaving the audience at New York Fashion Week guessing which was real and which wasn't.

Ten Project Runway designers -- seven decoys and three finalists -- unveiled their collections on Thursday, leaving the audience at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week guessing which was real and which wasn't.



The identities of the three actual finalists on the fashion reality show will not be revealed until October 28, when the finale of its eighth season is shown on Lifetime Television.

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The show staged on Thursday featured the designs of those finalists and seven other would-be designers on the show, whose decoy collections will be edited out of the final episode.



This season's winner gets $100,000 from L'Oreal Paris to start a design line, a spread in Marie Claire magazine, $50,000 in technology from Hewlett-Packard Co and Intel Corp and a chance to sell a collection on Piperlime.com.

The looks were bright and buoyant, matching the show's ratings resurgence. Last Thursday, Project Runway attracted an estimated 4 million viewers, up from last year's drop to an estimated average of less than three million viewers, The Nielsen Company said.

Model and Project Runway host Heidi Klum, who called the show a "sea of fantasy and color," said the designers did such good work that "it's hard to choose a winner."