On The Couch

In the 18 months since we started this blog, we have received more compliments than we ever could have imagined. Seriously. That's not false modesty. Anyway, the one compliment that tickles us more than any other is the one so many of our commenters make: "I wish I could be on the couch with you boys on Wednesday nights."

We suspect that many people think we sit around dressed to the nines, sipping something pink and spouting one bitchy bon mot after another and just being generally fabulous. In truth, if we're alone, we're in our jammies at that point and if we have guests, we're usually crankily shushing them so we can hear every word. Our critiques tend to be nothing more than "Ew." or "That's adorable." Are we shattering your illusions, darlings?

Well, you'll be happy to know that if we had informed you of it ahead of time you REALLY would have wished you were on the couch with us last night. Why?




THAT'S why.

Let's backtrack, shall we?

If you're a regular reader of our poor lamented (but soon to see a return to greatness! Promise!) sister blog, T Lo, you may remember that we moved this past summer. A couple months ago, we were taking a stroll through the new 'hood when someone who looked suspiciously like Jay McCarroll drove by in a big-ass car. We had heard that he moved back to Philly recently, so we dropped him a line and said "Hey, was that you we saw driving down so-and-so street in our neighborhood the other day in a big-ass car?" Not only did he confirm that it was, but after a little backing and forthing, we came to realize that the Runway gods have a wonderful sense of humor: Jay lives three blocks from us. How's that for a kick? Even better, he said "Hey, we should get together and watch the show some time." We were all "Whatever. If that's what you want." No, actually we were all "YES. NAME THE DATE." and proceeded to sharpen our claws for the Primo Bitchfest that was to come.

And was it ever primo. We had originally planned to maybe do an interview and then write a post talking about the experience of watching Project Runway with the person who originally made us fans, but the interview idea was quickly scrapped when Jay started off with "So let's trade gossip. What do you know?" Well, the wine got poured (and poured and poured) and the stories started flowing, none of which will we recap here. Sorry, ladies.

Not that it was all gossip. The most interesting parts of the conversation were when Jay talked about the insanity of being an instant reality television star and how that fucked with his head and how much he despised New York and how happy he is now that he's in a place where he feels he belongs. We talked about his teaching gig (loves it) and his upcoming QVC line (summer) and we bitched about the fact that the show doesn't seem to care about finding new talent anymore so much as it does about showcasing already established designers. Jay is whip smart and funny and self-deprecating and still likes to try and shock people. In other words, he's exactly what you think he is. And yes, he brought it up: "I can't BELIEVE you guys liked Kit's dress last week!"

Oh! And watching the show with him was a fucking TREAT. Without *ahem* naming names, certain people would flash on screen and Jay would yell out *ahem* certain things about them and...well...let's just say it was entertaining and leave it at that. We'll say one thing: we're never going to look at those montages at Mood the same way again.

Sorry darlings, we're not trying to be teases here (okay, maybe just a little), but when we tell a designer (as we have many times) "None of this will get mentioned on the blog," we mean it. Jay is Jay and he's funny and not afraid to share his opinion, so we wanted to give him free reign to be himself. If he thought we were going to transcribe his every utterance he would have been on his guard and the whole night would have been a lot less fun for everyone.

So, we're sorry that we can't really give you any specifics of the convo, but how could we not share this little event with you? Suffice it to say that of the many rewards this blog has sent our way, watching an episode with Jay McCarroll ranks right up there at the top.

And Jay, if you're reading this: We may never be able to eat Camembert again. Thanks a lot.