Sissy Bear Conquers Television

Next stop ... THE WORLD!


Click here for full post.

Chris March Greeting Cards

Sissy Bear branches out!

Click for full post.

If you're having display issues with your feed, subscribe to our new feed

Meryl Streep in Chris March at the Oscars

Go Chris!

If you're having display issues with your feed, subscribe to our new feed.

Click for full post.

Meryl Streep Wearing Chris March at the Golden Globes

Go Sissybear!

A little birdie (named Chris March) just dropped us a line:

"Hi Guys--I was sworn to secrecy, but now I can tell you that I designed and made Meryl Streep's dress for the Golden Globes (!)"

How fabulous is that? Congratulations, Chris. She looks great.

[Photos: WireImage]

Post a Comment

T Lo Interviews Chris March

A chat with Sissy Bear about all things both Sissy and Bear.

We know a lot has happened since you were on Project Runway. Fill us in on your doings since.
Holy cow! Let's see, I'll give you a list, it'll go quicker...

-Finishing my book, "I Heart Chris March," which comes out this week!

-I have filmed two TV pilots to be the host of my own show (one is a fashion makeover show and one is about me and my crazy workshop), plus, a few other television offers on the table.

-I have done designs for Prince, and made costumes for the lovely Beyonce and her latest tour.

-Working on a line of women's ready-to-wear (hopefully to be sold on TV).

-Blogging about "Project Runway" on mylifetime.com, as well as my weekly video "Runway Rundown" on tvguide.com.

-The "drag" episode of PR on Season 5, and of course the "Project Runway All-Stars Challenge" earlier this year.

-A cameo in the upcoming film "Bear City" (a spoof of "Sex and the City" with big, hairy gay men!), and I also got an audition for "30 rock".

-Various TV, charity, and publicity appearances, including my favorite--being the costume contest judge at the season 3 premiere of "Mad Men" in Times Square!!

We're exhausted just reading that. You're also getting back into performing, right?
I am doing a one man show in February (13th, 14th and 15th) at the Ars Nova Theater in New York called, "Laughing at my Expense". It's a mix of stand-up, biography, and crazy costumes.

Tell us more about your line of women's clothing.
Well, it is based on some of my past designs (like the PR all-stars stuff) made a little more mass market accessible. I have gotten so many requests for it, I finally decided to do it.

You mentioned how you were a contest judge at the premiere of Mad Men season 3 in Times Square. Joan Holloway: potential drag icon?
I love Joan! I wish I was her...my mother had a red wig that I used to wear in 1966 (I was 3 years old) so I have been channeling her my whole life. Big boobs, big hair, gallons of eyeliner--what's not to love?

So, what really happened with the whole Beyonce and Thierry Mugler lawsuit? We heard so many different versions and opinions that we couldn't make head or tail of it.
I'm not allowed to comment too thoroughly on this issue, but legally speaking, the lawsuit is against Thierry Mugler for non-payment of invoices. Not Beyonce. It is for Beyonce's costumes that I was not paid. You can Google it, and get thousands (literally) of versions of the story...

Let's talk about your costumes, they're really amazing. When did you start designing them?
In kindergarten; I started making costumes for myself to play in, and then for Halloween, and then it just morphed into my profession before I knew it. I have always been creative, and costumes just include all the things I love, including humor and fantasy.

You always find a way to use non-traditional materials in interesting ways, like the geisha girl on your site with the tubing for a wig. How did you receive your training? Did you go to school or are you self-taught?
I went to college, but not for any kind of design degree. I am self-taught, mostly because I could never find anything I wanted off the rack. Plus, nobody could really create the outrageous look I was after, so I just learned to do it myself. I think that has really expanded my horizons--I will make anything out of anything, even if it's "against the rules".

What's your favorite part of a costume? The gown, headpiece, wig...? What's the one piece that makes a costume?
You know I have a fondness (obsession!) with large things on my head, whether it's a wig, headpiece, or the Chrysler building. The one thing that makes the costume? Always--the idea behind it.

Tell us about your book,"I Heart Chris March."
It is a 150 page photo book of the last 25 years of my costume and fashion designs. It is packed with one outrageous photo after another--it was kind of overwhelming to see them all in one place!! It was the best way I could think of to share my world with everyone.

Was it hard to choose what photographs/looks would go in the book? We know you have an insane amount of costumes and photographs.
The hardest part was deciding what to leave out--I will only embarrass myself to a certain extent....

The book has a foreword by Tim Gunn. How did that come about?
Oh, Tim....he is such a special person to me. I have told him many times that he is my guardian angel on earth. All I did was ask, and he wrote the most beautiful, flattering thing you can imagine....the great Harvey Fierstein also wrote an incredible blurb for the back cover.

Where can people buy the book?
You can order it exclusively through my website (www.chrismarchdesign.com) or go directly to this purchase page: http://www.chrismarchdesign.com/ilovechrismarch/

If you want to get the book before Christmas, please order it by December 4th (Friday!). Due to popular request, I am going to do my best to sign all of them....

Still dating the guy who sent you an email right after the show aired?
Yes...I have the most wonderful boyfriend in the world thanks to "Project Runway". He saw me on the show and sent me an email on Valentine's Day--We met and have been together ever since. That's what I meant when I said I had no idea how much love the universe would send my way....

Well, we can’t wait to get our hands on your book. Thank you, Chris!
Thank you, guys.


[Photos: Courtesy of chrismarchdesign.com]


Post a Comment

All-Star Chris

Sissy Bear is back with a vengeance, bitches!

Unfortunately, for blogging purposes, he provided us with no drama and little of his old Sissy Bear flair, unless you count his startling tendency to fall asleep in the middle of working. There was a lot of concern in the comments section regarding his health, and truth be told, we shared that concern. But Chris was kind enough to drop by and give us all the scoop:

"Hi Everyone--I don't know if it's appropriate for me to comment here, but I would like to say a couple of things about the show:

First, thanks to everyone for your praise of my collection--it is very flattering and means a lot to me! The show had incredibly tough circumstances this time, and I was lucky to get anything done...

About the sleeping...a few things colluded to make me extremely sleepy during the filming.

1) I got approximately 3 hours of sleep a night, less the night before the runway.

2) The first day of filming, I got a bad case of food poisoning at lunch (which they conveniently edited out) that made me very weak and dehydrated.

3) I am diabetic, and on a new medication that makes me very, very sleepy. It just can't be helped.

4) Yes, I have sleep apnea, have been diagnosed and have a CPAP machine. Unfortunately, the other circumstances of participating in the show overwhelmed any sleep I actually got.

5) Then, to top it all off, I went home after the final interview and went to bed, and woke up the next morning with a terrible case of the flu (which I must have been catching during the last days of filming).

PLEASE know that I try to take care of myself (yes, I am painfully aware that I really need to lose weight) and go to the doctor every 3 months to monitor my diabetes. I have made great progress with it since being on Season 4 (I was then insulin dependent, and no longer need it).

Thanks again for all your lovely compliments, and you can visit or email me any time on my website at www.chrismarchdesign.com.

Sincerely,

Chris March"

As far as we're concerned, it's ALWAYS appropriate for you to post here, darling.

Now, let's take a look, shall we?

It really was a shock when this came walking down the runway. Since we keep returning to that whole "growth" issue, we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that Chris may just have shown the most growth of any of them. Before we get down to it, we have to say that we loved his styling choices. Not just the hair and makeup, but also those tights, which gave this look a much-needed pop of color. We're only so-so on the shoes, though.

This is getting very hard to type because a very sleepy cat insists on resting her fluffy head on the keyboard.

What shocked us most about this look is how "high fashion" it looked. We're not going to insist that it's innovative (because it's not) but it's so polished and so chic. Loved the thick hood and how it sort of formed a cowl neck and we love the heaviness of the sleeves. We can just see this look on a very stylish Manhattan bitch in sub-freezing weather when the wind comes whipping down those NYC canyons.

And what's great about it is it's complete. At most, she'd need a pair of gloves to finish it off. The only slight criticism we have is that we think that pseudo-peplum formed by the belt is perhaps a bit too large.


Um....ditto? Can we just copy and paste 95% of what we said about the previous outfit?

It's repetitive, but what saves it from being too repetitive is that awesome collar, which doesn't completely transform the look, but it does make it stand out from the previous one. As the Duchess said, if he'd shown a full collection of 20 -40 looks, this kind of variation on a theme would have been expected.

Unfortunately, he didn't show that many looks, so this kind of similarity probably hurt him in the long run.

We have to reiterate that we still think the proportions on that peplum-y bottom are a little off.

Ouch. You can practically hear the "clunk." To be honest, we thought this was terrible.

After coming out of the gate strong with a loud "I am a DESIGNER, bitches!" proclamation, he unfortunately lapsed straight back into drag queen and costuming territory. We MIGHT have given this look a pass, except he had to go and do that tit treatment, which just turned the whole look into a joke. It's fine for him to show a sense of humor but it didn't fit with the more serious tone of the other pieces.

The rest of it's just okay and very basic. Had he resisted the urge to do the Brunhilde thing with the bust, he might have rated a higher place in the lineup.

This look, while it's very dramatic and has some interesting construction going on, was more of a wrong than a right.

That fabric is very heavy (in fact, it looks like wool) and not conducive to making a red carpet look. It's also a mistake for him to have shown three looks out of four made from the same fabric. There's "cohesion" and then there's just repeating yourself. Granted, he didn't know he was making a red carpet look when he bought the fabric, but once he was stuck with it, he should have designed some lighter than this.

It's just way too much damn dress. That bow is huge and that feather, again, takes it off into a costume-y direction. A lot of people defended this by saying "Tilda Swinton could wear this," and that's true, but only because Tilda Swinton has the wildest, most unconventional taste of any actress regularly appearing on the red carpet and a rare skill that allows her to wear highly unconventional clothing. This was supposed to have been designed with Nicole Kidman in mind (even if the likelihood of her ever wearing any of the entries was always pretty slim) and this does NOT call to mind Nicole Kidman at all.

And while the front is at least dramatic, the back is kind of unflattering, probably because the front was so heavy it was pulling the whole dress forward.

We cannot agree with the many commenters that think Chris should have won because while the first two looks were almost shockingly good, the last two just weren't. We're sure Chris would have liked the 100 grand and the bragging rights that come with being a PR winner, but we hope he realizes he made a very strong statement to everyone watching and really cemented himself as a talented designer with a vision. That's not as fun as winning, but it's a damn good consolation prize.

[Photo: David Russell/myLifetime.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


Post a comment

Project Runway: All-Star Sneak Peek

They don't offer much in the way of spoilers, but for the PR-starved, they're certainly fun to look at.

You can see more pictures of the Project Runway All-Star Challenge here. Let the speculation begin!



[Photos: myLifetime.com]


Post a Comment

Project Runway All-Stars, poodles!

Fun idea or overkill?

Lifetime is airing a Project Runway All-Stars Special on August 20th. It's going to be a 2-hour special before the premiere of season six.

And here are the designers:
Chris March - Season 4
Daniel Vosovic - Season 2
Jeffrey Sebelia - Season 3
Korto Momolu - Season 5
Mychael Knight - Season 3
Santino Rice - Season 2
Sweet P - Season 4
Uli Herzner - Season 3

We're coming down on the side of "fun idea." It's only a special, after all. Besides, we get to see some old favorites like Uli and Chris March and Daniel V. and Michael Knight again. Jeffrey and Santino occupying the same space at the same time? The world may never recover.

What amuses us to no end is that at least 4 PR alums called us over the past year to ask whether we thought it was a good idea to do it. Opinions varied, but none of the people who called us wound up doing the show. When we started this blog three years ago (Today! Happy Birthday, us!) we never would have imagined that any of the designers would be looking to us for advice. Power, bitches. The world is lucky that we wield it so responsibly.

Anyway, what do we think of this? And what's the format going to be? Multiple challenges? Let the opinionated speculation begin!


From myLiftime.com:
"Get ready for a fashion face-off on the runway like you’ve never seen before! Eight of your favorite designers from past seasons of "Project Runway" will go head-to-head in the workroom in a two-hour special "Project Runway: All-Star Challenge," airing on Thursday, August 20 at 8 pm et/pt.

The competition will be fierce, as almost all of these designers made it to Fashion Week during their seasons, and one stole the whole show. Plus, these designers won’t just be sketching for glory — they’ll have a shot at taking home a $100,000 cash prize too. It’s also their opportunity to show Heidi Klum, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia what kind of lines they can create ... the three judges will be on the sidelines, ready to critique every last stitch. The good news for the designers is they’ll have mentor Tim Gunn by their side in the workroom to help keep them from committing any fashion faux pas."

[Photos: Getty Images/myLifetime.com]


Post a Comment

Top Ten PR Looks of All Time: 4, 3, and 2

Darlings, we're in the throes of fashion week mania, but we couldn't just abandon our list, could we? The world wants to know!

Number 4

Season 5: Episode 7 - "Fashion That Drives You"
Designed by Korto Momolu
Model: Katarina Munez

From the humblest of materials and the oldest of techniques came this stunner of a coat. Some thought it was a no-brainer for Korto to weave seatbelts, but it wasn't just the weaving that makes this look, it's the construction and the silhouette. She made the materials work for her and produced something that, in the hands of a less talented designer, would have probably looked stiff and cartoonish.

Number 3

Season 5: Episode 7 - "Fashion That Drives You"
Designed by Leanne Marshall
Model: Karalyn West

Ironically, even though S5 was derided by many for not having the same level of talent as previous seasons, two of the top ten looks came not only from that season, but from the same episode. As much as viewers sometimes bitch about the so-called "trash" challenges, the fact is, it does force the more talented designers to be creative. Leanne took the innards of a car and made this almost perfectly executed, Mugler-inspired rock and roll dress that stunned the judges and earned her a spot in the Top 10.

Number 2

Season 4: Episode 5 - "En Garde!"
Designed by Christian Siriano and Chris March
Model: Marcia Mitchell

And while S4 was remembered for its tense, touchy teamups, Christian and Chris managed to blend their radically different personalities and styles into this jaw-dropping "avant-garde" gown made of miles of organza with a gigantic asymmetrical fan collar. The judges were speechless and rightfully so. If any one dress sums up Project Runway - beautiful clothes made with virtually no money and in a ridiculously short period of time - then this would be that dress.

More to come, darlings. Not just the Number One, but also the Honorable Mentions. You didn't think we could narrow it down to just ten, did you?


[Photos: Barbara Nitke/Bravotv.com - Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]

The Daily Beast: What if Michelle O was completely insane?

The Daily Beast asked a bunch of former PR contestants to design an inauguration gown for future First Lady, Michelle Obama.

"What should America's new Jackie O. wear to the Inaugural Ball?

To help dream up the answer for America’s new fashion-forward first lady, we enlisted some of our favorite Project Runway designers to create Inaugural Ball gowns at once stylish, thrifty, and patriotic. But in keeping with the show’s premise, they didn’t get to skip off to Mood to buy their fabric. For this challenge, they were only allowed to use Laura Bush’s 2005 Inaugural Ball dress, to be chopped up and repurposed, à la Pretty in Pink; an American flag; burlap potato sacks; and $10 worth of trims of their choice."

Okay, chopping up Laura Bush's gown is just bizarre and using an American flag made half the dresses look like formal wear for Wonder Woman. Despite our criticism of her sartorial choices the other day, we'd like to think she's not completely insane.

Unsurprisingly, we like Leanne's the best:




But we give major points to Chris March for being the funniest:



Click here to see the other designs.


[Photos: Courtesy of The Daily Beast]


Post a Comment

Peabody PR After Party

Heidi Klum, executive producer Jane Cha, executive producer Desiree Gruber and PR designers attend the "Project Runway" party after the 67th Annual Peabody Awards at the Rusty Knot.












[Photos: WireImage]