Yes, I'm a fan.

I must admit I got into reluctantly, because I don't really care for those other reality show contests, like American Idol or Making the Band or America's Next Top Model. I don't mean to be a snob about it - I think they can be amusing. It's just that the formula is so obvious after a couple of episodes that it fails to hold my interest over an entire season.

But Bravo's Project Runway is different. It's different because the contestants have to actually produce something real, something that works; a tactile piece that gives three dimensional shape to all their high-falutin theory talk. And that's exciting.

Last season, I have to admit I was rooting for everyone's favorite nerd-turned-fashionista, Diana Eng. She combined a vigorous intellect with dreamy intellectualism and a dash of whimsey. The pieces she made for the show I thought were less successful than the ones she's produced in school, or on her own (check out her portfolio to see some cool wearable concept art). I love her mathematical knits for example! And I love the idea of uniting math and art, two strangers who ought to be lovers. But she got kicked off the show, and then I was rooting for Daniel Vosovic. First of all, how dreamy is he? Long and lanky and soft-spoken, with great hair - total dreamboat. And his taste is exquisite - always refined, always sophisticated, maybe a little too much so at times. Sometimes you want a young person like that to do a few shots and jump up on the table and dance to Foreigner. Daniel's clothes would never do that. But boy could that kid sew. His stuff was technically some of the most accomplished on the show - sleek and (except for the one infamous weird-boob collection) well-fitted, tidy seams, straight hems, flawless use of bias cut.

It's inspiring to watch the beauty that arising out of all the chaos of the studio. The contestants sketch, bitch, think, work like mad, and the final dress is so - it seems so effortless, so serene, mute to the anxiety and stress that produced it. Project Runway demonstrates that fashion, for all its useless luxury, is serious business, and people sweat and cry over it, and that work deserves to be celebrated.

Tonight I'm making champagne cocktails with friends to celebrate the return of Project Runway. I can do without goosestepping Heidi Klum, but Tim has endeared himself more and more to me. Long live the serious frivolity of fashion and those who worship it!