Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

Charleston designer makes final 3 on 'Project Runway'

Carol Hannah Whitfield, a College of Charleston graduate, is among the three fashion designers who made it to the finale of "Project Runway." Whitfield, a 24-year-old self taught-designer, made it to the finals over 16 other designers in the reality TV show competition, including Gordana Gelhausen, a designer who owned a Vista clothing store, Goga, in the Vista in 2007. Gelhausen was one of two designers "aufed" in the challenge to pay fashionable homage to the Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles. The other contestant eliminated was Christopher Straub. Althea Harper and Irina Shabayeva also got to go to Bryant Park. The “Runway” finalists showed their collections at New York’s fall fashion week last February, but you won't see the runway show until Thursday, Nov. 19, at 10 p.m. on Lifetime, cable channel 50. Supermodel Heidi Klum, mentor Tim Gunn, judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia, and a cast of 16 aspiring designers taped the show’s sixth season last year. It was meant to begin airing in January, and production wrapped in February. But the legal dealings weren’t resolved until a settlement was announced in April, when NBC Universal said it would be paid by Weinstein for the right to move the show to Lifetime.

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