From The Detroit Bureau: Kara Janx (cont.)

We chatted about her upcoming wedding in January. “It will be held in South Africa, if we had it here it would be too big”. We also talked about the continued success of her business since Season 2 has aired. She’s sold more than 3000 of her signature kimono wrap dresses and now has a production facility making them. Each one takes 3 hours to complete. She is also continuing to develop her Spring 2007 line that we will be hearing more about soon.

I was quickly joined by fellow BeePeR Valerie Keiser, a former employee at Haberman’s and talented designer in her own right who showed me around and served as our assistant field reporter. Valerie auditioned for Season 3 in Chicago and even has a brief cameo in the RTTR episode. Friend of BPR and Season 3 hopeful Kate Bennett was also in attendance. Kate is a firecracker that I could easily see getting cast on the show in the future. Click here to see a slideshow of Valerie’s photos from the event.

The challenge for the 10 finalists: "Your girlfriend is a television reporter who will be covering the 36th Annual Fash Bash® DIA fundraiser on August 26. A Tahari fashion show is featured in the gala evening. Your friend wants you to make her dress or ensemble. Her look is upscale and stylish, but her limited budget makes this a creative challenge for you." The budget was $100 and the contestants were given two weeks to complete the challenge, a luxury of time by Project Runway standards.

On the runway, the finalists were grilled about their designs just like on PR. Kara was extremely gracious and supportive to all of the designers, offering encouragement to each. The grand prize winner was Sarah Lapinski, 28, from Detroit whose well-constructed dress had a great color palette and fit. Her prizes: $2000 cash (half the proceeds from ticket sales, the other half was donated to the cancer institute), a new Bernina 430 sewing machine and a personal portfolio critique from none other than Tim Gunn himself!

An auction was also held for an Olympic Fashion Week Package donated by Bravo that included 2 tickets to the PR3 Show at Bryant Park in September. This package brought in $3900! I know we like to complain about Bravo around here sometimes, but this really was a generous donation on their part.

The best part about this event was how it brought together the small but growing Detroit fashion design community. Project Runway has increased awareness and interest in fashion design throughout all walks of life and the appreciation for young designers was very evident at the “Make It Work” contest. Congratulations to Toby Haberman for putting this event together, to Bravo and especially to Kara for generously donating her time and talent.

Oh, the question I was most asked: “Who is going to be tossed out tonight?”, of course…

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Click here to read the Detroit News report on the event.Thanks desertwind.