Project Runway NZ to feature our most fashionable celebs

Kiwi reality TV fans have a new show to get excited about this year, and Spy can reveal a swag of Kiwi celebrities and fashionistas are in the running to host and judge on Project Runway NZ.

The first Kiwi version of the hit US show, hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum and which crowns an emerging designer, is due to hit screens later this year.

Last week TVNZ 2 put out the call for ambitious local designers to apply, and this week Spy got the lowdown on which famous faces will help make the Kiwi version a runaway success.

Rachel Hunter is top of the list, and if she agrees, we think the hosting role is hers. Her history with TVNZ is good — judging on New Zealand’s Got Talent and currently hosting her globally successful show Tour of Beauty.

Jaime Ridge is sure to make an appearance.

In the US version the judging panel consists of four — designers including the likes of Michael Kors, a media personality and celebrity. We can expect similar here.

Names being mentioned for the judging and contestant mentor roles include fashion personalities Colin Mathura-Jeffree, Jaime Ridge and Amber Peebles. Designers include Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester, Adrian Hailwood, Kathryn Wilson, Juliette Hogan and Kelly Coe. Most interestingly, the Kiwi winner of the US Project Runway 2014 show, Sean Kelly is also said to have had his shoulder tapped.

We’re also excited to hear that the woman who knows the quality of designer clothes like no other, Real Housewife of Auckland Gilda Kirkpatrick, is in the running, as is fellow RHOA star Angela Stone.

Spy reckons CMaj would be perfect in the contestant mentor role, made famous by Tim Gunn. So would industry expert Murray Bevan, who reportedly provided the clothes for PM Jacinda Ardern’s American Vogue shoot.

But wait, there’s more. We hear former first son Max Key is a contender too. No doubt he’d pull in the viewers, and could get advice from sister Stephie. While at St Cuthberts, and before she graduated from the Paris College of Art she was a finalist in the very essence of Project Runway, the Newmarket Young Fashion Designers Awards.