My post about Project Runway contestant Keith Michael‘s fake audition sketches has only been up for a few hours and already he has written in to defend himself. How flattering to know that he must be a regular reader. Anyway, this is what he has to say:
i thought it might be time to write in. for the record, i submitted 5 portfolios for the judges review. the one you seem to be focusing on was a research assignment i did for a client in which i reviewed key fashion trends. as a designer, trend forecasting jobs come to me quite frequently. i’m very proud of all the work that i do. the panel of judges that reviewed my work had many years experience behind them. i found them neither ignorant, uninformed or misguided about their own profession.
keith-
Trend forecasting, hmm? It seems odd that out of “five portfolios,” the images of someone else’s work were the only ones shown on the program. It’s also odd that he Photoshopped the photos to eliminate the models’ faces and also changed the color of the Lacoste skirt. Wouldn’t the skirt color be an important part of the “trend” for Spring 2006?
Nice try, Keith, but ultimately not very persuasive. Now we all get to wait and see if he is the one who is the subject of the scandal on this week’s episode and is “asked to leave.” Heaven help him if he made it to the Final Three.
I don’t think Keith got kicked off for possession of books. Based on his appearance and attitude of his last shots on the show, he was obviously under the influence of something, i’m thinking heroin or meth. This is pure speculation, but if you substitute “heroin” or some other drug for “fashion how-to books” it still makes sense, especially when Tim said it made him sick that Keith was in possession of them/it. I think this was done to save face for both Keith and the show. I can’t see P R dealing with a drug abuse issue.
i really liked keith michael and am bummed that he was asked to leave… so what if he had a pattern matching book or whatever the hell that was, his designs were still the shit. and i swear angela stole, and is now using those books because how did her designs become pretty over night? oh and i definately think keith woould be good in bed too!
I am secretly, kind of in love with Keith Michael and want his personal email address so i can begin plotting a master plan for dating him. does anyone have his email address?
didnt he say that he never designed women’s wear before the show? he seemed to be contradicting himself. what a jackass.
Looks like Keith is Project Runway’s version of Omarosa. I hope so – reality tv is kindest to it’s villans in the long run. The producers worked so hard to make Keith look like an a** that they guaranteed him fame despite who wins. I don’t pretend to know if he’s a good designer, but we can all see that he is a BAD BOY, and everybody loves a rebel!
I wonder who would be more fun in bed… Santino or Keith? Grrrrr!
To those of you making ridiculous comments about Keith’s looks…come on! Please are we in junior high where everyone is judged based on appearance. PS. Keith is totally hot! I think he is articulate, funny, and brought a lot to the show. I am sad to see him go. Also, he is probably really embarassed at the fact that he did get kicked off so give the guy a break…he was trying to fulfill his dreams…and now not only did they get crushed…but he was publicly shamed. Hasn’t he been through enough?
Keith Sucks. He should have been voted off last week, he didnt even create an outfit for his dog ( I mean come on). then on top of that he got an attitude with Heidi. He is cocky and ignorant and should go home.
I think that once Keith Micheals leaves the show they will bring in one of the finalists that they showed in the first audition. I thought that Daniel Feld’s designs were real sexy and interesting, plus he was adorable. He looked like a euro version of John Stamos or Robert Downey Jr in the 80’s. Anyhow I hope they do something since Keith should have never been on in the first place and took someone elses opportunity.
I think that Keith is slimy and ugly. He has the face of a rat with a bad over-bite problem and he is so insecure that he had to use someone elses work in his portfolio and then cover that up as a research project for a forecaster
as everyone should know project runways episodes are far in advance meaning they have already happened….. obviously keith michael isnt the one getting kicked off the show because if he was he wouldnt have defended himself and gave the judges great compliments…. so frankly i dont beleive hes the one getting kicked off…. but it was wrong of him to include other fashion runway styles in his porfolio…. but i dont think he’ll get kicked off for it…. and if he was getting kicked off for it dont you think he would have explained to the judges what the pictures were for…… so i don think hes the one getting kicked off…
too bad because i think Keith is really hot. haha. his designs seemed pretty good too.
he’s wack….i’m embarrassed for him!
this is just another reason its possible he did the photoshopping. although you might say that he would probably say this if it were true. then again, maybe he didnt think that he needed to. if we decide to just buy the idea about trend watching, i can say that personally if i were to make such a project and chose to use a computer, i might do a similar thing. the reason being is i am very big on continuity. pictures that you find in magazines and on the internet are of course of different styles, sizes, and levels of composure. if you put these pictures together they might clash and also if you needed to enlarge a smaller picture, the resolution would look like crap. so an easy fix is to create vector art by tracing a picture as he seems to have done. that way, the size of the original picture is meaningless and furthermore you can choose colors and change certain other aspects of the pictures style.
OMG,
C’mon peeps. This lower Keith has no talent. I used photoshop in like 6th grade to “create” designs. Maybe he is just a little slower than the rest of us. I am in 11th grade now and do all “MY OWN” designs. Give me a job. I’ll show you the “Sheet!”
I can kinda see how this might work… in theory.
Since he didn’t have his own womens wear designs to show, he might’ve chosen to show his mens wear designs, his colaboration on womens wear and his trend analysis of womens wear (a roundabout way of showing he could design and had a good eye for womens wear). As for the photoshopping, the purpose might have been to “blind” the shots, so that your client would read your take on these outfits without bringing any prejudices they may have about the designer.
So, its semi-plausible, though that brings up more questions — like why those were the only pictures we saw or why we were shown Michael, Nina and Heidi seeming to comment on those pictures as if they were his own designs.
(Another question is if Keith was trying to maintain his womens wear virginity so that he could offer PR’s producers a good story about making his first dress ever in the first challenge.)
Isn’t it cool when a designer from the show gets back to a blogger. I had a similar experience with a post i did about Malan Breton.
I’ve been leary of PR from the beginning. I mean honestly, Debra Messing as the final judge? Chloe Dao as the winner? The kids they pick are in no way the most talented young designers in the country. In fact I’m guessing most of them are friends of the production team, students placed for marketing by Parsons and actors. This seasons group seems particularly ridiculous. It’s American Idol for the pseudo intellect.
‘Project Runway’ Contestant Pulls Boucle Wool Over Nina Garcia’s Eyes
The shock is not that Project Runway contestant Keith Michael cheated by submitting sketches stolen from prominent designers’ runway…
It was pointed out on another blog , by someone who does design trend reports, that usually you use photos that are fully credited to the designers that designed the clothes… which would then be obviously not your own work…
I dont know if Keith is auffed over this, but I definately smell something fishy here…
I hate to think that he was knowingly put on the show plagarizing someoneelses work.. I really hope thats not so..,