Santino Rice — An Appreciation
For anyone who feared that season two of "Project Runway" would yield drama less compelling than the first season — or, heaven forbid, that reality TV had run out of good characters — please see exhibit A, one Santino Rice.
An alum of L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Santino brings solid talent and practical skills to PR2. But it's not just his flair with a sewing machine that makes him stand out. Maybe it's the way he breaks into song or beat-boxing when the cameras roll. Maybe it's the invective he hurls at the judges when they dare to question his designs. Maybe it's the 5-inch stiletto pumps he wore to meet Nicky Hilton.
All in all, while the ironically named Santino may look to be the Wendy Pepper of this season's show, it's too simple to view him as the designer you love to hate.
First, there's the look: tall, rangy and theatrical, he's got an intriguing urban pirate/aging club kid/strung-out artist image going on. At times he looks like photography grad student David Sherman, Keri Russell's love interest in the second season of "Felicity." At others he resembles a weird hippie dad, one who would have hung out with the parents on "Family Ties."
And while Wendy merely had a sinister glower, Santino has an "I will kill you with my eyeballs" look all his own. It helps that the producers of PR2 edit the tapes to emphasize this. Santino appears to be rolling his eyes and casting the Santino Stare of Death at any competitor who gets an ounce of praise.
Even so, even when he's on a spree of self-applause, he can show an appealing glimmer of humanity, be it of insecurity or gratitude. Bathing in the glow of winning the Nicky Hilton party dress challenge, he rhapsodized about his fantasy of designing "all the Hilton merchandise at all the little gift shops." His fellow designers rolled their own eyes at his hubris, but he genuinely seemed excited.
Other times he's just plain mean. As the lingerie team challenge began, he sniped about the qualifications of Diana's team to design sexy underwear: "They've never had sex in their lives." But Diana's creations were so risque that one prudish model balked at wearing them. And Santino's own designs were panned by the judges. In a collection he called "Heidi's Homeland," his three models wore odd clothes that seemed to be made of gingerbread, gumdrops and lace doilies. They could have been, as PR mentor Tim Gunn put it, "marzipan costumes for a Black Forest production of The Nutcracker."
During his explanation to the judges, Santino blamed Emmett, the quiet menswear designer on his team, citing an outlook that "has never suited me." Emmett chimed in that Santino had had an eleventh-hour meltdown, collapsing on the floor in despair. Which was true. But for Santino, the responsibility, as always, lay solely with the rest of the world for not "getting" the perfect designs in his head.
Santino also had words with judge Nina Garcia, the steely fashion director of Elle. After her pronouncement that his lingerie was "not aesthetically pleasing," he shouted at her, then baited her into saying that the styles could have come from John Galliano or Alexander McQueen.
For all these larger-than-life antics — which, of course, further secure his place in the show each week — Santino is still good for the other contestants, because they all look less diva-ish, and their designs more accessible, next to him.
Nick Verreos, for instance, has much in common with Santino — like him, he attended FIDM, was born in Missouri but now lives in L.A., and has a quirky, irreverent personality. Standing next to Santino, though, he instantly becomes the nice-guy contrast to Santino's enfant terrible. This is also true of their design styles. Nick shows graceful restraint, even in his fancier concepts, while Santino rarely meets an embellishment he doesn't like — and can't further embellish. If Santino himself is the Santino of darkness, Nick is the Santino of light.
In case viewers didn't notice that fact, Nick pointed it out as he stood next to Santino after the Banana Republic team challenge, noting how he tried to tone down Santino's tendency toward the Cecil B. DeMille method of designing. Santino's instinct is to assemble a cast of thousands of design elements; Nick edits down to the essential elegance of a style.
No one needs to reiterate, though, that Santino makes an ideal reality-show star. Watching him in action offers valuable insights into classic reality-show questions, such as: What is the role of the individual in society? How important is acceptance by one's peers? Is it necessary to be a team player in order to get ahead? At what point will one be brought down by one's own hamartia? As Nick puts it, "There's a limit where it starts looking a little tacky." By contrast, Santino recognizes no limits. His favorite saying, "Urbi et orbi," "To the city and the world," could just as easily be, "To tackiness and beyond." That's not necessarily a bad approach. In Santino's brightly colored world, showing restraint would be as out of place as pink Ugg boots with a ball gown. Which he would probably wear.
— Liz Khalil (thegreatlizby@yahoo.com)
